X 






,/\ 

























;%_ 





























Til 1 ■■■ 



/ 



A 

COMPENDIOUS ABSTRACT 

OF THE 

HISTORY 

OF THE 

CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

PROM ITS FIRST FOUNDATION 

TO THE 

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



A faithful and circumstantial Account of the Acts of the Apos- 
tles ; of the Lives of the Primitive Christians ; of the general Per- 
secutions raised against them by the Pagan Emperors ; of the 
CEcumenical Councils ; of the chief Pastors ; of the Condem- 
nation of ancient Heresies ; of the defective Systems of Pagan 
Philosophy; of the Dispersion of the Jews, the Destruction of 
the Temple of Jerusalem, and the vain Attempt of the Em- 
peror Julian to re-build it ; of the Downfal of idolatry r ; of the 
Suppression of Schisms ; of the Conversion of Nations ; of the 
Rise of Mahometanism ; of the Crusades : 

WITH SEVERAL OTHER 

REMARKABLE EVENTS AND OCCURRENCES. 

ILLUSTRATED WITH 

A brief detail of the eminent Virtues and Apostolic Labours of 
the holy Fathers, learned Doctors, ecclesiastical Writers, re- 
nowned Martyrs, and other great Saints, who have flourished 
in every Age down to the present, &c. 

u Upon this Hock I -will build my Church, and the Gates of Hetl 
" shall not prevail against her. 99 

St Matt. c. 16, y. 18, 



By the Rev. WILLIAM GAHAN, O. S. A. 

Frem the last Dublin edition, -with very considerable additions, 

NEW-YORK; 

/Mated by J. Seymour, No. 49, Jobn-strest 
1814 



- 



CONTENTS. 



*$fc* 



page 
CHAPTER I. The wonderful wisdom and goodness dis- 
played by Jesus Christ in the formation of his Church. 13 
II. The Apostles begin the great work of the conversion 
of the world, and establish a Church in the city of Jeru- 
salem. 19 
HI. The gates of the Church are opened to the Gentiles, and 
the Apostles announce ihe happy tidings of salvation to dif- 
ferent nations. 27 

IV. The stupendous progress of the Christian Religion, and 

the happy effects it produced in the world. 35 

V. The necessity of the Christian Religion evinced from the 
defective systems of Pagan, Philosophy. 4& 

VI. The means established by the Apostles for preserving 

the Christian tteligion in its primitive purity. 50 

VII. All the Apostles crowned with martyrdom. 58 

VIII. The destruction of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of 

the Jewish nation. 6£ 

IX. The three first general persecutions. 67 

X. The Church of the second century. 73 

XI. The fourth and fifth general persecutions. 93 

XII. The Church of the third century. 100 

XIII. The five last general persecutions. 121 

XIV. The persecutors of the Church overtaken in this life 

by the avenging justice of God. 133 

XV. The Church of the fourth century. 133 

XVI. The Emperor Julian apostatizes, and attempts to re- 
establish Paganism, &c. 189 

XVII. Of the persecutions raised by Valens, the Vandals, 
and Persians ; and of the second general council, under 
Theodosius the Great. 195 

XVIII. The Church of the fifth century. 202 

XIX. The Church of the sixth century. 221 

XX. The demolition of old Pagan Rome, and the rise of new 
Christian Rome from its ashes. 236 

XXI. The Church of the seventh century. 244 

XXII. The rise and progress of Mahometanism. 250 
XXHl. The Church of the eighth century. 255 

XXIV. The Church of the ninth century. 267 

XXV. The revival of the Western Empire, &c. by Chstrles 

the Great. 273 

XXyi. The Church of the tenth century, 278 



IV CONTEXTS. 

XXVII. The Church of the eleventh century. 28a 

XXVIII. Of the Crusades and military orders. £95 

XXIX. The Church of the twelfth century. 302 

XXX. The Church of the thirteenth century. 312 

XXXI. The Church of the fourteenth century. 325 
XXXil. The Church of the fifteenth century. 330 

XXXIII. The seventeenth general council, held at Florence 

for the extinction of the Greek schism, Sec. 338 

XXXIV. The Church of the sixteenth century. 344 

XXXV. The re-buiMing of St. Peter's Church at the Vati- 
can, Sec. S51 

XXXVI. The rise of Lutheranism in Germany, of Calvin- 
ism in France, of Socinianism in Tuscany, Poland* Sec. 361 

XXXVII. The Church of the seventeenth century. 374 
XXXVIir, The ChUrcli of : 



PREFACE 



jV knowledge of what concerns the Church of 
Christ, is the more interesting and the more necessa- 
ry, as the Church is the sacred organ, by which 
God speaks to his people, and discovers to them 
the great truths of eternity. This is the plain, easy, 
comprehensive, and certain rule, that Jesus Christ 
has appointed for teaching mankind what they are 
to believe, and what they are to do, in order to se- 
cure their salvation. By following this rule, the 
faithful are preserved in the unity of the same reli- 
gious sentiments, and prevented from being carried 
about by every wind of doctrine, as the Apostle 
says, Ephes. c. 4. v. 14. In fact, it is by this 
means ajone that we know for certain that the Scrip- 
ture itself is the genuine word of God, and that 
Christians of the weakest capacity, who cannct 
read, and who are incapable of examining or inter- 
preting the Scriptures, come to the knowledge of 
the true sense and meaning of them, and are instruct-* 
ed in many points of the Christian religion, which 
the Written Word does not contain. 

Hence it is, that after professing in the Apostles' 
creed our belief in the ever blessed Trinity, the In? 
carnation, and the other sublime mysteries of our 
redemption, the very next article that is subjoined 
to them, is that of the Holy Catholic Church, it be- 
ing the next in importance to these Divine Truths* 
and the sacred canal, through which the revelation 
of them is conveyed to us with every degree of cer- 
tainty. 

This article of the creed is a most convincing 
proof both of the continual existence of the church 
A2 



\l PREFACE. 

upon Earth, and of all those signal prerogatives, 
with which Christ has adorned and distinguished 
her ; for as it was a divine revealed truth, when the 
creed was made by the inspired Apostles, that Christ 
had then an holy Catholic Church upon Earth, so 
it is no less a divine truth, that he has an holy Ca- 
tholic Church upon Earth at present, that he had 
such a Church in all ages ever since the Creed was 
made, and that he will have such a Church to the 
end of the world, because the Creed and every 
article of it must be true at all times. It would be 
blasphemous to suppose any article of it to be false, 
as every article of it stands upon the same ground 
with all the other sacred truths of faith, that is, upon 
the Divinfc Revelation, and consequently must be 
equally believed at all times. 

By the Church is meant, a congregation or so- 
ciety composed cf pastors teaching, and of the peo- 
ple who are taught. Taken in its most ample sig- 
nification, it consists cf all the posterity of Adam, 
who belong to Christ by faith, and thus compre- 
hends the people of God through the whole period 
of the e^ustence of mankind. Christ himself is the 
supreme head of this great mystical body, as St. 
Paul teaches us, Ephe?. c. 1. v. 22. It is he who 
merited grace and glory for all the saints of the old 
Testament. There is no Salvation for men but 
through him. There is no other name under Heaven, 
by which we are to be saved, Acts 1 . v. 12. He took 
away the wall of separation that divided the Jews and 
Gentiles. He united them and made them one peo- 
ple, called the Christian people. The members 
of the Church being in different states or conditions, 
are distinguished into different Classes, which com- 
pose the three parts of the Church, usually called 
the Church Triumphant, the Church Suffering, and 
the Church Militant The first is called the Church 
triumphant^ because the saints in Heaven, of whom 



fBEFACE. VII 

it is composed, are now triumphing in the possession 
of eternal glory, after having fought manfully here 
on Earth and conquered all the enemies of their 
souls. The souls in Purgatory are called the Church 
Suffering, because they are in a state of suffering 
and purgation, until they are pure enough to be ad- 
mitted into Heaven. The faithful on Earth are call- 
ed (he Church Militant, because they are still in the 
field of battle, engaged in a spiritual warfare with the 
enemies of their salvation^ 

St. John in the Apocalypse, describing the Church 
triumphant, says, that " he saw great multitudes of 
" saints and martyrs, and of holy virgins in Heaven* 
" who follow the Lamb wherever he goes, — re= 
a deemed to God in his blood, out of every tribe*, 
" and tongue and people, — clothed with white 
" robes, and palms in their hands, — casting their 
" crowns before the throne of God. — felling down 
" upon their faces, and adoring God, — serving him 
'* day and night in his temple, — saying Holy, Holy, 
" Holy, Lord God Almighty, — benediction, and 
" glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, honour, 
u and power, and strength to our God for ever and 
" ever. Amen." 

The Prophet Isaias, c. 35. foretelling the glories 
of the church militant, describes her as a way of ho- 
liness, that leads to eternal happiness, and forms to 
virtue and sanctity such as are one day to people 
Heaven. The Prophet Osee, c. 2. v. 19. calls the 
Church the Spouse of Christ, betrothed to God in 
righteousness and for ever. St. Paul, Ephes. 5. c. 
27. v. calls her a Glorious Church without spot or 
wrinkle, and 1 Tim. 3. 15. the Pillar and Ground of 
Truth. She is also styled the City of the Living God, 
the House and Temple of God, the Sister of Heaven- 
ly Jerusalem, the Mother of the Saints,, embellished 
with every ornament of grace and virtue, and rich in 
her numerous issue, always bringing forth, and giving 



Till PREFACE 

spiritual birth to the children of God, She is com- 
pared to the Tower of David, built with bulwarks, to 
a powerful army in battle array, to a fountain of wa- 
ter, springing up into eternal life, and watering eve- 
ryplace by her copious streams. Another time she is 
compared to the great Luminary, that spreads its 
rays and diffuses its light through the whole world ; 
another time to a Tree, that extends its branches over 
the earth ; another time to a City set on a hill, which 
cannot be hid, and the gates of which shall not be 
shut day or night ; another time to a huge Mountain 
that fills the whole Earth ; another time to a Moun- 
tain upon the top of mountains, exposed to the view 
of all nations flowing to it, and as conspicuous as the 
Sun in the Heavens, 8rc. 

The Prophet Daniel, c. 2. v. 4. speaking of the 
Church of Christ in the New Testament, compares 
it to a kingdom, and foretells that his spiritual domi- 
nions shall extend over the universe, and that his 
reign shall be without end. His kingdom shall never 
be destroyed, nor delivered up to another people, but 
shall stand for ever. Where, it is evident, that by 
the kingdom of the Messias, the Prophet did not 
mean a temporal kingdom, but the spiritual kingdom 
of the Church, which Christ has established in or- 
der to enlighten and sanctify mankind. His King- 
dom is not of this world, nor does it consist in any of 
those sublunary pomps or perishable things, which 
render earthly kingdoms respectable in the eyes of 
men. His reign is a reign of truth and justice. 
The only riches, that are deemed worth thirsting 
after in his kingdom, are the riches of grace. The 
only force that is desirable, is that of virtue and 
good works. Jesus Christ reigns here over th3 
minds of his servants by faith, and over their hearts 
by charity. The greatest enemies of his spiritual 
kingdom are errors and vices, heresies, schisms, and 
scandals. 



FREFACE. IX 

Christ himself has foretold that his Church on 
Earth should have such enemies to encounter. She 
is not here below in the place of her repose, but in a 
place of trial, and in a foreign country. She must 
of course necessarily expect to meet with severe 
trials and persecutions, and must be prepared to 
combat them with the spiritual weapons of patience, 
prayers, and instructions, until the happy period of 
her migration into heavenly Jerusalem, her native 
country, where she is to be for ever associated to 
the Church triumphant, and to be crowned with im- 
mortal glory. 

If we trace the history of her birth, her growth, 
her establishment, and continuance to this day, we 
shall find that, according to the prediction of her 
Divine Founder, she has been attacked in every 
age since her infancy, either by the persecutions of 
the ruling powers of the world, or by heresies, 
schisms, and scandals, raised by some of her own 
refractory members, who swerved from her sound 
doctrine, and trampled upon her sacred laws. She 
never has been, and never will be, without some 
persecution, open or hidden, general or particular, 
as St. Augustine observes in his exposition of psalms 
39, 54; and all these persecutions are to terminate 
with the general persecution of Antichrist at the end 
of the world. The Heathen emperors have used 
their utmost endeavours to destroy her by fire and 
sword. False brethren and rebellious children have 
disturbed her peace by broaching errors, and by 
separating themselves from her unity. But she 
has triumphed over all their efforts, and sur- 
mounted all oppositions, because she was divinely 
and constantly protected by the all-powerful hand 
of her Heavenly Author, who had promised to be 
with her all days unto the consummation of ages* 
*She has seen many different sects rise from time to 
time, and she has also seen them fall and dwindle 



X FREFACE. 

away to nothing, whilst she constantly gained 
ground in one Country, when she happened to lose 
it in another. She has always preserved the depo- 
sit of faith pure and uncorrupted, and never adopt- 
ed as any part of her doctrine, the erroneous popu- 
lar opinions, that prejudice might have autho- 
rized in any age, even in the first ages of Christi- 
anity. She has conquered the cruelty of tyrants by 
her patience, and terminated the contests and dis- 
putes that were raised on similar occasions, by the 
decrees and decisions of her councils. She has 
already had a visible being in the world, upwards of 
seventeen centuries, notwithstanding the various 
revolutions of nature, and the many violent attempts 
that have been made from time to time, to alter and 
adulterate her doctrine of faith, morals, and disci- 
pline, God having raised in every age a multitude 
of learned doctors, zealous pastors, and illustrious 
saints, to stem the torrent.of iniquity, to condemn the 
reigning vices of the times, and to confound and 
refute every pernicious error as soon as it made its 
first appearance in the world, as will be shown in the 
sequel. 

Millions of Christians in every preceding genera- 
tion have found the Church of Christ subsisting in 
their days, and believed precisely the self-same 
doctrine, which we now profess; and this must ne- 
cessarily be the case in all proceeding ages, and fu- 
ture generations, till time shall be no more, because 
a perpetual duration has been promised to the 
Church, and because he who made this promise 
n immutable, all-powerful, and faithful to his word. 
Heaven and Earth may jjass away, bid his words 
will never pass away. Hence I may justly conclude 
with the great Augustine : Pmdicta lege, impleta 
cerne, implenda collige. Read what has been here- 
tofore foretold by Jesus Christ; behold what has been 
already accomplished in the foregoing ages : and con- 



PREFACE. 



XI 



elude that the remainder of his predictions shall be 
infallibly accomplished hereafter. 

Edification being the primary view of this under- 
taking, the compiler's first care has been a most 
scrupulous attachment to truth, the soul of all his- 
tory, especially of sacred history, which tends to 
the advancement of piety and religion. No good 
end can, on any account, ever render the least lie 
lawful, or authorize the use of, what some most 
improperly call, pious frauds. On the contrary, 
to tell any lie whatsoever in the least point relating 
to religion is, so far from being justifiable, or excu- 
sable, that the pretence of religion would exceeding. 
Jy aggravate it, and make it a crime of the most 
heinous nature. Good men may sometimes be too 
credulous in things that appear harmless, and the 
more adverse they are from fraud themselves, the 
more unwilling they are to suspect imposture in 
others. But no good man can countenance and 

a ,, *ir ,? W . n f ™ ud for aD F P m 'P° se whatsoever. 
All wilful lying is essentially a sin, as all Catholic 
divines teach, with St. Augustine against the Priscil- 
hanists. It is hateful to the God of truth and an 
attront and injury offered to our neighbour. It is 
contrary to the very end and use of speech, dissolves 
the sacred bond of society, and destroys mutual 
confidence and commerce among men. Hence the 
canons of the Church have always strictly forbid- 
den false legends, and all kind of such forgeries and 
impostures as lies, in matters of great moment, and 
the authors when detected, have been always con- 
demned and punished with the utmost severity. Ter- 
tull.an and St. Jerom inform us, that even in the 
time of the Apostles, a certain priest at Epbesus 
having forged false acts of St. Paul's voyages and 
sufferings out of veneration for that Apostle, was 
deposed for this crime from the priesthood. 

All the facts related in the following compendious 



Xli PREFACE, 

abstract, have been faithfully taken from the most 
unquestionable authors, and are founded upon ori- 
ginal monuments and authentic records. A free use 
has been made of the unwearied labours of the Rev. 
Dr. Alban Butler, the pious author of the Lives of 
the Fathers, &c. The limits of this work would not 
allow long narratives ; yet the heart, which seeks 
and loves God, will find it agreeably diversified by 
an intermixture of interesting events and a variety 
of salutary documents, that may afford the attentive 
reader ample matter for serious reflection. A short 
account is given of all the chief pastors and of the 
writings of the principal fathers, of all the general 
councils, of the conversion of nations, &c. and 
of the characteristical virtues of several illustrious 
saints, who are proposed as models for our imitation. 
The example of those great servants of God points 
out to us the true path to eternal happiness, and 
sweetly invites us to walk in their steps. It tacitly 
reproaches us with our own sloth and indolence, 
and silences all our pretences and objections. It 
removes the difficulties which self-love is so apt to 
raise, and forces us to cry out with St. Augustine : 
Cannot you do, what such and such lutve done ? For 
though we may not be able to practise the extraor- 
dinary rigours and austerities of some saints, wha 
were conducted by an uncommon impulse of the 
Holy Ghost, yet we can learn from them to prac- 
tise charity, humility, patience, resignation, sobrie- 
ty, penance and other virtues, in a manner suiting 
our circumstances and respective states. The diffi- 
culties, which many apprehend in embracing a pe- 
nitential course of life, according to their circum- 
stances, are often only imaginary, and arise from 
groundless fears, which sloth and sensuality create. 
A coward starts at shadows, and every thing wears 
a frightful face to those who have not courage to set 
their hands to work. 



THE 



HISTORY 



OF THE 



CHURCH OF CHRIST, 



CHAPTER I. 

The wonderful wisdom and goodness disfilaycd by 
Jesus Christ in the formation of his Church* 

THE Royal Prophet, after praising God in the 
most profound sentiments of adoration and thanks- 
giving for the wonderful works of his Providence 
in the creation and administration of the universe*, 
raises his eyes above this material world, and the 
whole order of nature, to contemplate the new spi- 
ritual creation, and in a transport of admiration and 
thanksgiving*, cries out, in his i03 Psalm, 30. v. 
Thou shalt send forth thy spirit, and they shall 
be created ; and thou shalt renew the face of the 
earth. Of this.new spiritual creation the first form- 
ing of the world out of nothing was but an em- 
blem. This prediction, and its accomplishment, 
this great and astonishing mystery ; this wonderful 
work of the Holy Ghost ; this new creation regards 
the establishment of the spiritual kingdom and 
Church of Christ on earth, and its propagation 
through all the nations of the known world, not- 
withstanding all the opposition that earth and hell 
could contrive against it. The meridian sun could 
not appear clearer and brighter than the Divine 
Power and Wisdom did on this occasion : It shone 
in its full lustre, and confounded all the enemies of 
the Christian Religion, by such illustrious marks of 
supernatural interposition, and such incontestible 
proofs, as no pretences could invalidate, 
B 



14 HISTORY OF THE 

Christ our Lord began to form his Church, when 
he assembled his disciples, and instructed them with 
his own mouth. Like a wise architect, he built his 
Church upon a firm rock, upon a solid and im- 
moveable foundation, that it should stand in spite of 
all storms, oppositions, or any eiforts whatever to 
make it fall. His infinite wisdom did not use less 
prudence in the constitution of his spiritual king- 
dom, than human legislators do in well-regulated 
states and societies, wherein wise means are esta- 
blished to preserve ceconomy, peace, and tranquil- 
lity amongst the subjects. Magistrates are appoint- 
ed, to prevent confusion and disorder. Judges are 
commissioned to give decrees, to interpret and ex- 
plain the civil laws with a sovereign authority, and 
to terminate the differences that arise between man 
and man, which otherwise might last till doomsday, 
if every man was left at liberty to construe and 
expound the laws after his own fancy, or allowed 
to be judge in his own cause, and to prefer his own 
private interpretation to that of the unanimous de- 
cision of the whole body of judges and lawyers. 
Christ came, as he says himself, St. John, c. If), v. 
16, to gather all nations together, to bring back all 
who had been dispersed, that there might be but 
one sheepfold and one shepherd, one Church and 
one Faith, as there is but one Lord and one Baptism. 
It was his constant prayer whilst on earth, that all 
his disciples should be one, as he and his heavenly 
Father were one. — St. John, c. 17. v. 21. He had 
expressed in the most forcible terms, Matt. c. 12. v. 
25. the desolation threatening a kingdom divided in 
itself. It cannot therefore be supposed that he 
would expose his own kingdom to such a danger, or 
act in a manner that would not become any king or 
potentate on earth, by leaving his people unpro- 
vided of what is necessary to preserve subordina- 
tion in every well regulated society. He was sen- 
sible that no human means could contribute more 
effectually to cement unity and faith, subordination in 
government, peace- and charity among Christians, 
and to preser\e them from splitting and dividing 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 15 

into different sheepfolds or communions, than if he 
appointed a centre of unity or an universal pastor 
over his Church, to regulate and govern it, and to 
influence all the particular Churches in the world, 
as their visible head, and supreme judge in masters 
appertaining to faith and morals. 

In the old law, the Jews had recourse to the High 
Priest of the Synagogue in all matters of difficulty 
and importance, and were obliged to submit to his 
judgment, though they had both scriptures and 
prophets. — Deut. 17. In the new law our Divine 
Legislator did not alter this method of instructing 
mankind. He chose one among the twelve apostles, 
says St. Jerome, as the visible head of his Churchy that 
an head being ajifiointed, the cause of schism might be 
removed* He commanded Peter to feed his shecfi, and 
to feed his lambs ; that is, his whole flock without 
exception. — St. John 21. He prayed for Inmt ha S^ 
his faith should not fail, and left him as chief pastof 
of his fold, to confirm his brethren. — St. Luke 22, 31. 
He gave him in particular the keys of the kingdom 
cf Heaven, St. Matt. 16, 19. as the ensign of su- 
preme power and authority, which he communi- 
cated to him as his vicegerent on earth. In 
fine, he gave him the name of Peter, which sig- 
nifies a rock, and declared that ufion him, as a rock, 
he would build his Church, and that the gates of 
Hell should not prevail against her. — St. Matt. 
16, 18. Hence the chief place iii the sacred 
college of the Apostles was -from the beginning 
assigned to Peter. In the enumeration of the twelve, 
all the Evangelists constantly place him in the front, 
and unanimously agree in naming him before all 
the rest, as the first. Our Lord usually directs his 
discourse to Mm, and he replies as the mouth of 
the rest, which made the primitive writers of 
Christianity constantly call Peter the Chiefthe Heady 
the President, the Prolocutor, and Foreman of the 
Apostles, with several other titles of distinction and 
prerogative. 

Christ also appointed different orders of Pastors, 
Afiostles. Evangelists, and teachers, to carry on the- 



16 fliSTORY OF TH£ 

work cf the ministry in succession^ for the edification 
/and preservation of his mystical body, and for con- 
ducting souls in the road to perfection — Ephes. 4, 
12. He authorized them to preach the gospel, St. 
Luke 4, i8, and gave them all the spiritual power of 
the priesthood, to administer the sacraments, St. John 
20, 2L and to rule the Church, which he purchased 
with his own blood. — Acts 20, 28 He commissioned 
and sent them into the whole world— Si. Mark 16, 15 ? 
to teach all nay on s the same heavenly doctrine he 
had taught them, to administer to them all the same 
baptism, and to establish one and the same plan of 
religious worship. — St. Matt. 28, 19. He moreover 
promised to send down the Holy Ghost to teach them 
all truth. — St. John 16, 12, and assured them that he 
Mms£lJ would bt with them all days, even to the con- 
summation of the world, to assist them by the conti- 
nual protection of his all-ruling Providence, St. 
Matt. 28, 20, and consequently that he would be with 
their lawful successors in ofrice, who are to continue 
to the end of the world, and to complete the work 
which they began ; for as the Apostles neither did, 
lior could teach all nations in their own person, nor 
v/ere to continue long on earth, it is manifest that 
-the aforesaid commission and promises of Christ 
were not limited or confined to their persons, but 
were given and designed to extend to their succes- 
sors in office. Here then we have just cause to ad- 
mire the goodness of our Lord, who requiring from 
>!; s a belief of mysteries, which are above the com- 
prehension of all human understanding, and founded 
in divine revelation, did not leave us trusting to the 
uncertainty of our own private judgment, or exposed 
:.o a variety of errors, and to an endless source of dis- 
tentions and divisions, but vouchsafed to provide us 
with a sure and unerring guide, which is under the 
special protection of Heaven, and the continual gui- 
dance of the Holy Ghost. Instead of a weak and blind 
reason, which we are to sacrifice in obedience to him, 
according to St. Paul, 2 Cor. 10. he was pleased to 
establish an authority that cannot mislead us, and 
.that every individual is bound to yield a firm assent 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. I 

10 m religious matters. It was truly becoming 
the wisdom, and worthy of the goo'dness of Jesu-- 
Christ, to preserve us thus from all illusions, differ- 
ences, or disunions, with regard to our faith, and to 
secure us against all the doubts, fluctuations, and 
distrustful suggestions of an incredulous temper, to 
which they must be liable who shake off the yoke oi 
authority to become their own guide in the atfair of 
religion, as they can have no certainty that they are 
not misled by their own private opinion, and mista 
ken in their judgment, this being a thing that daily 
happens to thousands and thousands in cases less 
difficult and less abstruse than matters of faith. 
Every man of caudour, who is open to conviction, 
must acknowledge that this method of instructing 
mankind by the authority of the Church, is the only 
sure channel through which the sense of revelation 
is conveyed to us with the most perfect certainty, 
and the best calculated rule for conducting us in the 
way of salvation, and for leading us to virtue and 
happiness in a plain, easy manner, fitted to all capa- 
cities, and adapted to the infirmities of human na- 
ture. By this means the ignorant, the dull of ap- 
prehension, and those who, through their weakness of 
understanding, and their several avocations, have not 
leisure, or are incapable of examining and interpret- 
ing the Scriptures, or of judging for themselves, are 
instructed in the revealed truths, and have better 
eyes to see for them than their own. By this means 
also the learned, as well as the ignorant, cU'e guarded 
against the illusions of pride and self-love, and fur- 
nished with the same motives of belief, and the same 
foundation for their faith. Instead of building on a 
sandy foundation, they build upon a rock, and have 
the pillar and ground of truth to support them, 1 
Tim. 3, 15 ; for which reason they are not to be sha- 
ken by all the specious arguments that human wit 
and learning are able to suggest. In hearing the 
pastors of the Church, they hear Jesus Christ him- 
self, who expressly says, St. Luke 10, lb, He that 
hears you, hears me ; he that despises you, despises 
me s and he that despises me, despises my heavenly 
B2 



feg HISTORY QF THE 

Father, who sent me. In obeying the ordinances of 
the Church in matters concerning religion, they can- 
not go astray, since they thereby obey only the or- 
ders of Christ himself, who says, St. Matt. c. 18. v. 
17. He that will not hear the Church, let him be to 
thee as the heathen and the publican. Let us stop 
here, in silent raptures of astonishment, and briefly 
contemplate the spiritual beauty, incomparable ad- 
vantages, and high prerogatives of the Church of 
Christ : She can never cease to be the true Church 
of Christ, nor fail in any of those sacred prerogatives 
with which Christ at first adorned her; she is al- 
ways holy, always catholic, always preserves the pre- 
vious deposit of faith pure and unvaried. Christ al- 
ways animates her by his holy spirit ; he always pre- 
sides over her as her supreme invisible head, and as 
the vine communicates nourishment to the branches, 
St. John c. 15. so he communicates to the members 
of his mystical body, the Church, the special influx 
of his gifts and graces, by the ministry he has esta- 
blished, and by the holy sacraments he has instituted 
for supplying all our spiritual necessities, and for 
healing ail the disorders of our souls, that he might 
thus redeem us from all iniquity, and might cleanse 
to himself a fieofile acceptable, a pursuer of good 
.works — Tit. 2. 14. or, as St. Peter speaks, I; 2. 9. a 
chosen generation, a holy nation, a purchased fieofile* 
St. Paul assures us, that he died for this very pur- 
pose, to purify his Church, and make her holy. 
Christ loved the Church, says he, Ephcs. 5. 25. and 
delivered himself up for it, that he might sanctify it, 
cleansing it by the laver of water, in the word of 
life j that he might present it to himself a glorious 
Church, not having spot or wrinkle, nor any such 
thing, but that it should be holy, and without blemish. 



CHURCH OF CHRIS i. 19 

CHAPTER II. 

The Afiostles begin the great work of the conversion 
of the world, and establish a Church in the city of 
Jerusalem. 

THE nativity of the Christian Church may he 
said to take its date from the descent of the Holy 
Ghost on the day of Pentecost, or Whitsunday, for it 
was then that Jesus Christ infused, as it were, a 
soul into his mystical body, and endowed it with a 
vigorous principle of life and action. From this pe- 
riod his apostles being completely qualified by the 
miraculous effusion of the Holy Ghost, began to ex- 
ercise all their respective functions, and to exert 
their powers in governing and propagating his spi- 
ritual kingdom. They immediately proceeded to 
execute the commission given them by their Divine 
Master, when he ordered them to go and teach all 
nations, but to begin with Jerusalem and Judea. 
Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and the Visible 
Head of the Church, began the great work with cou- 
rage and intrepidity. Inspired and animated by the 
Divine Spirit, he raised his voice, and preached 
boldly the divinity and resurrection of Jesus Christ 
before those very Jews, those Scribes and Pharisees, 
and those Princes of the Nation, who had put him 
to an ignominious death. He set before their eyes 
the enormity of their crime, and told them with a 
confidence, which no fear of torments or death could 
shake : Ye have slain the Author of Life, whom God 
has raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. 
Shortly before, the Pillar of the Church trembled at 
the voice of Caiphas's servant-maid, says St. Augus* 
tine, and shamefully denied his Lord and Master ; 
but, O wonderful change ! after the descent of the 
Holy Ghost, he fears no danger, dreads no torments, 
and values not the menaces of the whole Sanhedrim 
of the Jews He openly reproaches them with the 
murder of their Lord and Messiah. He exhorts 
them to repent, and to become adorers of Jesus ; an$ 



20 HISTORY OF THE 

by his first sermon he converts three thousand souls 
to the Christian Religion. His second discourse in 
the Temple was followed by the conversion of five 
thousand more, who, being struck with wonder and 
amazement, embraced the faith, on seeing him work 
an illustrious miracle in favour of a lame beggar, 
who lay at the gate of the Temple called the Beau- 
tiful, unable to move without help ; for Peter and 
John going into the Temple at three o'clock in the 
afternoon, to perform their devotions, this poor man, 
who had been a cripple from his mother's womb, 
fixed his eyes upon the two Apostles, and craved an 
alms, whereupon Peter replied, that he was not pos- 
sessed either of gold or silver, but that he would 
give him what he had, and forthwith commanded 
him, in the name of Jesus Christ, to rise and walk, 
taking hold of his right hand at the same time, and 
lifting him up. The poor man that instant leaped 
upon his feet, stood firm upon his legs, and walked 
joyfully with the Apostles into the Temple, giving 
thanks to God for the favour he had received by 
their means. Peter seeing the people amazed at the 
miracle instantaneously wrought before their eyes, 
seized on the favourable occasion to preach the 
mystery of the Cross to them, and to notify that Jesus 
is the promised Messiah and Saviour of mankind, 
and that there is no other name under Heaven given 
to men^ whereby we must be saved. — Acts 4. i2. 

The Jewish Priests, Sadducees, and Officers of 
the Temple, were so exasperated at the subject of his 
discourse, that they took Peter and John into cus- 
tody, and presented them before the Great Council 
of the Nauon? which, after some deliberation, com- 
manded the Apostles to be silent for the future, and 
to be careful not to speak nor teach in the name of 
Jesus. But they were not to be terrified or intimi- 
dated by such menaces : We leave you to judge, 
said they in reply, whether it be right to hear you, 
rather than God ; we cannot but speak the things 
which we have seen and heard. Death, in its most 
terrifying shape, was not able to deter them -rom 
discharging the sacred functions of their ministry. 



CHURCH OP CHRIST, 21 

Far from being silent, they felt the invigorating 
effects of the Holy Ghost; they were filled with 
new courage, and preached the word of God with 
confidence to the people, so that the multitude of 
believers in Jerusalem became every day more and 
more numerous. 

Of all the Jewish sectaries who opposed their 
preaching, the Sadducees were the most violent : 
Stung with envy to see the people so eager in em- 
bracing the new doctrine of the Gospel, they caused 
the Apostles to be apprehended and cast into the 
common prison ; but an Angel of the Lord having 
opened the doors and led them out, they went next 
day to preach again to the people in the Temple. — 
An officer being immediately dispatched to summon 
them before the Council, the Apostles, ready to obey 
every order of the magistrates, that was consistent 
with their duty to God, made their appearance. The 
High Priest reproached them with disobedience to 
the former orders, which had been given them, not 
to mention the name of Jesus among the people, noi* 
to disturb the public peace with any new doctrines. 
Peter answered in the same words as before, and 
observed, that when God commands one thing and 
man another, it never can be justifiable to obey men 
preferably to God. The answer threw the Council 
into a violent ferment ; they swelled with rage ; they 
stormed, and threatened the Apostles with immediate 
death ; when Gamaliel, a wise and prudent Pharisee, 
rose up to make them hear reason, and to calm their 
passions. With a soft and soothing eloquence he 
dissuaded them from acts of violence, and convinced 
them that they had no other measure to take than 
that of moderation ; that if this new doctrine was 
the invention of men. it would of itself soon fall to 
nothing; but if it sprung from God, that it would be 
rashness in them to oppose it. They agreed to foI« 
low his advice, and to dismiss the Apostles, after 
having scourged, and strictly charged them never to 
speak again in the name of Jesus. The Apostles 
being thus acquitted, departed from the Council, 
rejoicing because they had been accounted worthy 



22 HISTORY OP THE 

to suffer reproach for the name of Jesu^. Their zeal 
was not damped by suffering. They preached daily 
in the Temple ; and from house to house ceased not 
to teach the faith and doctrine of Jesus Christ. With 
tongues of fire, and voices of thunder, they proclaim- 
ed the mysteries of the Divine Mercy and Goodness 
to the people of different nations, assembled then in 
Jerusalem. They displayed to them, in their native 
languages, the beauty and recompense of virtue, the 
riches of eternity, the baseness and folly of sin, the 
emptiness and vanity of the imaginary greatness and 
pleasures of the world, with such divine force as to 
drive the powers of Hell before them wherever they 
went ; to strike the Oracles dumb, which the Devil, 
to delude mankind, pretended to deliver by the 
mouth of the Pagan Idols ; and to beat down the 
spirit of pride, covetousness, and sensual pleasure, 
of which they found the world every where full. — 
They delivered the great truths of salvation with un- 
daunted courage, and quoted the Divine Oracles of 
the Sacred Scripture with as much facility, as if they 
had made them the constant study of their whole 
life. They were inflamed with so ardent a desire 
that all men should know and love God's infinite 
goodness, that if they had a thousand lives they 
would have sacrificed them all with pleasure for the 
glory of God and their neighbours' salvation. 

As they were constantly employed in preaching 
the word of God, and gaining over new converts to 
Christianity, they ordained seven deacons by the im- 
position of their hands, that they might not only take 
upon them the management of the temporalities of 
the faithful, but that they might also co-operate in 
the sacred functions of the ministry. The most emi- 
nent of these deacons was Stephen, who to a natural 
greatness of soul united an ardent zeal for the cause 
of God. Full of the Holy Ghost, he exerted the force 
of his divine eloquence in instructing the people in 
the knowledge of salvation. His enemies, unable to 
resist the wisdom and the spirit that spoke by his 
tongue, had recourse to violence, and rushing furious- 
ly upon him, they hurried him out of Jerusalem to £\ 



CHURCH OF CHRIST* 



place where they stoned him to death ; a young man 
called Saul, keeping their garments, whilst the ex- 
ecutioners were hurling the stones at him. Stephen, 
in the mean time falling upon his knees, called most 
earnestly upon Jesus not to lay the sin to their 
charge, and when he had ended his prayer, and offer- 
ed up his blood to God for those who spilt it, he 
slept happily in the Lord, and thus became the first 
martyr of the new law, who suffered death for the 
testimony of the doctrine of Jesus Christ. After the 
martyrdom of St. Stephen, a grievous persecution 
commenced against the Church at Jerusalem, and a 
general consternation prevailed amongst the minis- 
ters of God's word. All, except the Apostles, fled 
from the storm, and dispersed themselves through 
the country of Judea and Samaria. Their dispersion 
contributed to the propagation of the Gospel, for 
they preached the word of God wherever they went, 
and received a greatnumber of schismatics and other 
converts into the pale of the Church. It was on this 
occasion that the Samaritans were converted and bap- 
tized by St. Philip, one of the deacons, who having 
preached the Gospel with amazing success through 
all the neighbouring cities, was admonished by an 
angel to go to the great road, between Jerusalem 
and Gaza, where he went, instructed, converted and 
baptized an Ethiopean Eunuch, one of the principal 
officers in the Court of Queen Candace, and her high 
treasurer. St. Peter, in the interim, wrought great 
wonders and many conversions among the Jews. He 
made his apostolical excursions through the country, 
and visited and confirmed his flock by word and ex- 
ample. Being informed that the Samaritans had 
been converted and baptized, and judging it neces- 
sary to confirm them against the terrors of persecu- 
tion, he went with St. John to Samaria for this pur- 
pose. And no sooner did these two Apostles lay their 
hands upon the new converts and pray for them, that 
they might receive the Holy Ghost, than they ac- 
cordingly received the Holy Ghost. It was here that 
Simon, a noted magician, observing the visible ef- 
iects that ensued from the mysterious imposition of 



24 HISTORY OF THE 

the Apostles 3 hands, offered them money, if they 
would grant him the power of performing such ^won- 
ders and conferring the Holy Ghost in the same 
manner. St, Peter, to show what a heinous crime 
they are guilty of who presume to barter spiritual 
things for temporal, immediately replied : " Keep 
c{ thy money to th>self, and let it perish with thee, 
" since thcu hast wickedly thought that the gift of 
u God rr ay be purchased with silver." St. Peter 
went afterwards to Lydda, where he healed Eneas, 
a man, who, for eight years, had been confined to 
his bed by a palsy. At Joppe he raised to life a wo- 
man, called Tubitha, who was remarkable for her alms 
o the poor. It was at Joppe that St. Peter was call- 
ed by divine appointment, and instructed by a mys- 
terious vision to communicate the faith to the Gen- 
tiles in the person of Cornelius, a Roman Centurion, 
who was remarkable for his piety to God, and his 
alms-deeds to the poor. Cornelius residing then at 
Csesarea, the caphal of Palestine, was on his part 
admonished by an ungel to send for Simon, surnamed 
Peter, who accordingly made no difficulty of going 
to C;£sarea, where, after explaining the doctrine of 
Jesus Christ to the virtuous Centurion and his fami- 
ly, he had the consolation of seeing them inspired 
by the Holy Ghost, and endowed with the miraculous^ 
gift of tongues, which determined the Apostle to 
baptize them upon the spot. 

The conversion of Saul afforded also great con- 
solation and joy to the Church St. Augustine as- 
cribes it to the prayers of St. Stephen for his perse- 
cutors. If Stephen, says he, had not prayed, the 
Church would never have had St. Paul. He was 
one of those who combined to murder St. Stephen, 
and by keeping the garments of all who stoned that 
holy murtyr, he is said, by St. Augustine, to have 
stoned him by the hands of all the rest He was a 
denizen of Tarsus, the capital of Ciiicia, instructed 
at Jerusalem in the strictest observance of the Law 
of Moses, and a most scrupulous observer ot it in 
every point. Not satisfied with having signatfz< d 
Ms zeal in the persecution at Jerusalem, he breath- 



CHURCH OP CHRIST. C 2J> 

cd nothing but blood and slaughter against the Dis- 
ciples of our Lord. By the violences he committed, 
liis name became every where a terror to the faith- 
ful. In the fury of his zeal he applied to the 
Sanhedrim for a commission to take up all Jews at 
Damascus who confessed Jesus Christ, and bring 
them bound in chains to Jerusalem, that they might 
serve as public examples for the terror of others. 
But God was pleased to show forth on him his patience 
and mercy, and changed him, in the very heat of his 
fury, into a vessel of election, and a most illustrious 
instrument of his glory : He was almost at the end 
of his journey to Damascus, a city of Coelesyria, 
when, about noon, he and his company were on a 
sudden surrounded by a great light from Heaven, 
brighter than the sun. They all saw the light, and 
being struck with amazement, fell to the* ground; 
then Saul heard a voice speaking to him in the 
Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute 
me ? Christ said not, Why dost thou persecute my 
Disciples, but me ; for it is he, their Head, who is 
chiefly persecuted in his servants. Saul answered, 
Who art thou, Lord? Christ said, Jesus of Nazareth, 
whom thou persecutes!. It is hard for thee to kick 
against the goad ; to contend with one so much 
mightier than thyself. By persecuting my Church, 
you make it flourish, and only hurt yourself. This 
mild expostulation of our Redeemer, accompanied 
with a powerful interior grace, strongly affecting 
his soul, cured his pride, assuaged his rage, and 
wrought at once a total change in him ; wherefore, 
trembling and astonished, he cried out, Lord, what 
wilt thou have me to do ? What to repair the past ? 
What to promote your glory ? I make a joyful ob- 
lation of myself to execute your will in every thing, 
and to suffer for your sake afflictions, disgraces, 
persecutions, torments, and every sort of death. 
The true convert expressed this, not in a bare form 
of words ; nor with faint, languid desires ; nor with 
any exception lurking in the secret recesses of his 
heart ; but with an entire sacrifice of himself, and 
an, heroic victory over the world, with its frowns 
C 



26 HISTORY OF THE 

and charms ; over the devils, with their snares and 
threats ; and over himself, and all inclinations of 
self-love, devoting himself totally to God : a per- 
fect model of a true conversion, the greatest work 
of Almighty Grace ! Christ ordered him to rise 
and proceed on his journey to the city, where he 
should be informed of what he required from him. 
Christ might as easily have instructed him immedi- 
ately by himself, but, as St. Augustine observes, 
he sent him to the ministry which he had establish- 
ed in his Church, to be directed in the way of sal- 
vation, by those whom he had appointed for that 
purpose. He would not finish the conversion and 
instruction of this great Apostle, but by remitting 
him to the guidance of his ministers ; showing us 
thereby, that it is his divine will that a due respect 
be paid lo those powers, which he has established 
upon earth, and that all who desire to serve him, 
should seek his will by listening to the Pastors of 
his Church, whom he has commanded us to hear, 
and whom he has* sent in his own name, and ap- 
pointed to be our spiritual guides. So perfectly 
would he abolish in his servants all self-confidence 
and presumption, the source of error and illusion. 
The Convert, vising from the ground, found that, 
though his eyes were open, he saw nothing: this 
corporeal blindness being an emblem of the spiritual 
blindness in which he had lived, and giving him to 
understand that he was henceforward to die to the 
world, and learn to apply his mind totally to the 
contemplation of heavenly things. His attendants 
took him by the hand, and conducted him to Da- 
mascus, where he remained blind for three days, 
without eating or drinking the whole time. After 
this time of probation and interior trial, which he 
doubtless spent in bewailing his past blindness and 
false zeal against the Church, a certain Disciple of 
distinction in Damascus, called Ananias, being ad- 
monished by our Lord in a vision, laid his hands 
on Saul, saying to him, Brother Saul, the Lord 
Jesus, who appeared to thee on thy journey, hath 
sent me, that thou mayest receive thy sight, and be 



CHURCH OF CHRIST* 27 

filled with the Holy Ghost. Immediately something 
like scales fell from his eyes, and recovering his 
sight at the moment, he rose up, was baptized, and 
took some refreshment. He remained some few 
days with the Disciples at Damascus, and began 
immediately to preach in the Jewish Synagogue 
that Jesus was the Son of God, to the great asto- 
nishment of all that heard him, and that knew that 
he came to persecute the very doctrine which he 
now so strenuously supported. The Jews, unable 
to withstand his arguments, and yet unwilling to 
embrace his doctrine, sought to take away his life ; 
and though he would have been happy to seal the 
truth by the effusion of his blood, yet in hopes of 
reserving himself for some greater good, by labour- 
ing for the salvation of others, he permitted his 
friends to let him down the walls of the city of Da- 
mascus in a basket by night, and^thus he escaped 
out of the hands of his enemies. In about three 
years after his conversion, which he spent in 
Arabia, preparing himself for the Apostieship of 
the Gentiles, he was introduced by St. Barnabas to 
St. Peter and St. James at Jerusalem, and admitted 
there amongst the Disciples of Jesus Christ. But 
his great zeal, which would not suffer him to re- 
main either silent or inactive, soon drew upon him 
a persecution, which must have ended in his death,' 
had not hia brethren prevented it by sending him 
away to Caesarea and Tarsus. He was afterwards 
called by the name of Paul, as it is supposed, from 
the surname of the illustrious Proconsul Sergius 
Faulus, whom he converted to the Christian religion. 



CHAPTER III. 

The gates of the Church are opened to the Gentiles* 
and the Apostles announce the happy tidings of 
salvation to different nations, 

THE manifold benefits which the Saviour o^ 
the world came to confer on mankind were first 



28 HISTORY OF THE 

offered to the Jews, but the great body of that 
carnal and siiff-ne ked people being professed ene- 
mies of Christ, openly rejected the doctrine of the 
Apostles. The light of the Gospel passed therefore 
from them, and was transferred to a people that was 
sitting in the darkness, and in the gloomy shades of 
death. The mystery of the vocation of the Gen- 
tiles began then to be accomplished, and it appeared 
that God was not a respecter of persons, and that 
he excepted none from his mercy, but out of his 
pure bounty called all to partake in the grace of 
eternal life, of whatsoever nation they might be by 
descent or birth. It began to be known that his 
covenant was no longer annexed to a certain race 
of people, but was to be communicated to all na- 
tions by a spiritual regeneration ; and that the true 
Israelites were not only the children of Abraham 
according to the flesh, but the imitators of his faith, 
and the children of the promise, whether Jews or 
Gentiles, who seek sincerely to please God by faith 
and good works. Hence the Apostles spread over 
he globe, each of them, like the Angel mentioned 
in the Apocalypse, flying with his gospel through 
• he air, as the spirit guides him. Fired with zeal, 
;Iicy resolve to communicate the divine flame, with 
which their hearts burned, to the remotest countries, 
and to spread the happy tidings of salvation to the 
very boundaries of the earth. The wondering world 
is roused by the thunder of their voice. The most 
barbarous nations are tamed and civilized. The most 
populous and renowned cities hear their divine elo- 
quence with raptures, and the temples of the devils 
tail to the ground at the sound of their words, as the 
dls of Jericho fell at the sound of the trumpets of 
Israel. To each of them was assigned a part of the 
world for the principal theatre of their apostolic la- 
bours, by which means God, who before was scarce 
known out of Judea, and even there ill served, was, 
through them, in a few years, honoured and adored 
all over the East and the South, and the different re- 
gions of the known world, which made St. Paul ap- 
ply to them the following words of the royal Prophet, 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



29* 



Ps. 18. — Their sound went forth into all the eartj r , 
and their words unto the ends of the world. It was 
by preaching, and not by writing, that they propa- 
gated the Christian Religion, and gained over thou- 
sands of souls to the Lord : Christ having giver, 
them no commission to write "the Gospel, but to 
preach and teach it. Several of them wrote nothing 
at all ; nor did Christ himself commit any part of his 
doctrine to paper. Those who wrote the different 
parts of the New Testament, never converted any 
person or nation by their writings, but first convert- 
ed them by word of mouth, and then wrote occasion- 
ally, not with a design to leave a complete abridg- 
ment of the Christian Doctrine, but to exhort and 
comfort them, and to adjust their faith in some con- 
troverted points- St. Matthew wrote his Gospel 
about the year of Christ 42, in the Syro-Chaldaic 
language, to satisfy the converts of Palestine. St. 
Mark, the disciple of St. Peter, wrote his Gospel in 
Greek, at Rome, about the 43d year of our Lord, by 
the persuasion of the faithful. St. Luke, the disci- 
ple of St. Paul, wrote his Gospel in the Greek 
tongue, about the year 53, and the Acts of the Apos- 
tles in the year 63, in opposition to some false histo- 
ries. St. John wrote his Gospel at Ephesus, about 
the year 98, at the request of the bishops of Asia, to 
refute the blasphemous errors and heresies of Ce- 
rinthus and Ebion. The rule of faith, by which the 
true believers were directed in the apostolic age, 
and instructed in the practice of all Christian duties, 
was the living voice of the Pastors of the Church, 
and not the dead letter of the Scriptures, which the 
generality of mankind, perhaps not one in some 
thousands, could make use of in those days, as very 
few then learned to read at all, and as there were 
none but written books in the world, until the art of 
printing was invented about thirteen hundred years 
after the days of Christ and his Apostles. 

Immediately after the ordination of St. Paul and 
St. Barnabas, they both set out together, and preach- 
ed with such unwearied zeal and amazing success, 
that they brought over to the faith innumerable 
C2 



3G HISTORY OF THE 

multitudes, both of Jews and Gentiles, by their toi 
nistry. The zeal of St. Paul seemed to quicken, as 
he advanced in his apostolic labours. The more he 
was persecuted, and the more he suffered, the more 
his heart was on fire. The glory of God, and the 
salvation of souls, were the only objects that occu- 
pied his thoughts. He allowed himself no rest, but 
travelled from province to province, from one island 
to another, braving every danger by land and by sea. 
He employed twenty-five years in announcing Jesus 
Christ through all the different states of Greece, and 
in the various provinces of Asia Minor, Syria, Cili- 
cia, Phrygia, &c The gift of miracles w r as so con- 
spicuous in him, that even the handkerchiefs and 
aprons which had touched his body healed the sick, 
and put the infernal spirits to flight. He founded 
many numerous Churches, particularly in the great 
cities of Philippi, Thessalonica, Be roe a, Athens, Co- 
rinth, Ephesus, Colosse, Galatia, Crete, &c. and 
wherever he founded any local and particular Church, 
lie took care to ordain and appoint a Bishop, Priests, 
and Deacons, to rule and govern it, according to 
the form of government established by Jesus Christ. 
Thus he ordained Timothy, Bishop of Ephesus ; 
Titus, Bishop oi Crete; Dionysius, the Arcopagite, 
Bishop of Athens, &c. that they might govern their 
respective Churches, and keep up a lawful succes- 
sion of pastors, by stirring up the grace of God, 
and communicating to others after them the spiritual 
powers of the Priesthood, which they had received 
by the imposition of his hands. — 2 Tim. 1. 6. 

In like manner the rest of the Apostles planted 
local Churches in all considerable cities, and ordain- 
ed Bishops to govern them. They preached the 
Gospel with indefatigable zeal wherever they went, 
and they had the consolation to see their labours 
crowned with wonderful success. St. Andrew, bro- 
ther to St. Peter, preached in Scythia. Thrace, Epi- 
rus, and Achaia. St. James the Greater, brother to 
St. John the Evangelist, preached in Judea. St. 
John preached in Lesser Asia. St Thomas preach- 
ed in Parthia, and other Eastern nations. St. James 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 31 

the Lesser, brother of St. Jude, preached in Judea. 
St. Philip preached in the two Phrygias, and in other 
provinces of the East. St. Bartholomew carried the 
Gospel into India, amongst the Brachmans, and in 
the latter part of his life preached in the Greater 
Armenia. St. Matthew preached the faith in Ethio- 
pia, Parthia, and Persia. St. Jude or Thadaeus, bro- 
ther to St. James the Lesser, preached in Persia, 
Arabia, Mesopotamia, and the people of Edessa. St. 
Matthias, after labouring zealously in Judea, preach- 
ed in the countries bordering on the Euxine and 
Caspian Seas. 

St. Peter spent seven years in preaching over a 
great part of Lesser Asia, and in settling Christian- 
ity in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadochia, and Bithynia. 
He preached for a considerable time in Jerusalem, 
until that Church, which first gave birth to Chris- 
tianity, and which sprung from him and the rest of 
the Apostles and Disciples, became very considera- 
ble, and was settled upon a very respectable footing. 
It was already composed of persons of every sex, 
age, and condition, when St. Luke wrote the Acts 
of the Apostles, The Lord adding daily to the Church 
such as should be saved. — Acts 2. 47. St. Peter, in 
particular, wrought so many illustrious miracles 
there, that the inhabitants of the countries and cities 
round about Jerusalem flocked to him from every 
side, and brought their sick into the streets, and laid 
them on beds and couches, that the shadow at least 
of this great Apostle might reach them, as he passed 
along, and heal their infirmities. Herod Agrippa, 
at the instigation of the Jews, caused him at length 
to be apprehended and imprisoned under a strong 
guard, designing to put him to death. The faithful 
were in the deepest consternation at the disasirous 
event, rightly judging, that the welfare of ihe flock 
was closely connected with that of the pastor, and 
therefore day and night did they send up their most 
fervent prayers to Heaven for his deliverance. The 
Almighty graciously heard their petition, and deli- 
vered his Apostle on the very night that preceded 
his intended execution. Bound with two chains^ he 



32 HISTORY OF TKE 

lay asleep between two soldiers in the prison, per- 
fectly resigned within himself, either to life or death, 
when an Angel of the Lord came with great bright- 
ness to the place, and, striking him on the side, said, 
Arise quickly. That moment the chains fell off 
from the Apostle's hands ; he speedily arose, put on 
his sandals, threw his garment round him, and fol- 
lowed the Angel through the first and second ward, 
till they came to the iron gate, which of itself flew 
open at their approach ; and thus the Sovereign 
Disposer of all things herb below set bounds to the 
power of a tyrant, and miraculously rescued his 
Apostle out of his hands. 

St. James the Elder being appointed the particu- 
lar Bishop of Jerusalem, St. Peter removed his 
apostolic see to the city of Antioch, the capital of 
Syria and of all the East, where the followers of 
Christ's doctrine were first distinguished by the name 
of Christians. They increased there amazingly, 
and formed a very numerous Church, of which St. 
Evodius and St. Ignatius were the first Bishops 
after the removal of St. Peter from Antioch to 
Rome ; for this zealous Apostle, not content with 
founding the two great Churches of Jerusalem and 
Antioch, resolved to set up the standard of the 
Cross of Jesus Christ in the very metropolis of the 
world. Hence he went to Rome in the year of our 
Lord 42, being the second year of the reign of the 
Emperor Claudius, and planted a very flourishing 
Church in that city, which he chose for the chief 
seat of his labours, and made his own particular 
see, and in that quality the capital of Christendom, 
and the first and most eminent of all other particu*- 
lar Churches, on account of the authority and pre- 
eminence of its chief pastor. The faith of the 
Church of Rome was spoken of throughout the whole 
world. Rom. 1. 8. even some time before St. Paul 
had arrived there, for he never had been at Rome 
when he wrote his epistle to the Romans (in the 
year 57,) as appears from his own words, Rom. 1. 
13. and 15. 22. and when he arrived in Italy, and 
was on his way to Rome, he had the pleasure to 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 33 

meet numbers of the faithful, who embraced him 
with open arms. 

However, though the Church of Rome was in 
H very flourishing condition before the arrival of 
St. Paul, it made such acquisitions by the labours 
and preaching of this Apostle, that he is consider- 
ed, jointly with St. Peter, a principal founder of 
it. Hence, St. Irenaeus, in the following century, 
calls the Church of Rome the greatest and most an- 
cient Church, founded and established by the two most 
glorious sJftostleS) Peter and Paul, lib. 3. c. 8. Divine 
Providence, which had raised the Roman Empire 
for the more easy propagation of the Gospel in 
many countries, was pleased to fix the fortress of 
faith in that great metropolis, that it might be easily 
diffused from the head into all parts of the universe. 
Nothing can be more incontestable in history, than 
that St. Peter was the founder and first Bishop of 
the see of Rome. In this the concurring testimony 
of all ancient Christian writers down from St. Ig- 
natius, the Disciple of this Apostle, is unanimous. 
Eusebius, the parent of Church history : St. Jerom ; 
and the old Roman calendar, published by Buche- 
rius, say, that St. Peter held the see of Rome 
twenty-five years, though he was often absent upon 
his apostolic functions in other countries, where he 
visited the faithful, like unto a general who makes 
his rounds, says St. John Chrysostome, to see if all 
things are every where in good order. It is not to 
be doubted but he preached the Gospel over all 
Italy, as Eusebius, Rufinus, and others assure us ; 
for though he and several of the Apostles chose 
particular sees for themselves, among the Churches 
which they founded, nevertheless they did not so 
confine themselves to single cities, as to forget their 
universal commission of preaching to all nations, 
except that St. James fixed his residence at Jerusa- 
lem, for the sake of the Jews. 

From Rome Christianity was soon spread through 
all the regions of the West, and through all the 
provinces of the Roman Empire. It was from 
Rome that St. Peter wrote his two epistles to the 



34 HISTORY OF THE 

converts he had made during the seven years that 
he was Bishop of Antioch. He indeed calls that 
city Babylon, as St. John also does in the Apoca- 
lypse, because Rome was then the chief seat both 
of the Empire and of Pagan idolatry, as formerly 
Babylon had been ; but as Babylon in Chaldea was 
at that time nothing but a heap of ashes, the best 
interpreters by Babylon understand heathenish 
Rome. It was also from this city that St. Peter 
sent his disciple, St. Mark the Evangelist, to found 
the great church of Alexandria, the capital of 
Egypt, and then the second in the world, with 
several other churches in Libya and Pentapolis. 
Among the disciples of St. Peter who helped to pro- 
pagate the Church of Christ in the West, one of 
the most renowned was St. Apollinaris, who founded 
the Church of Ravenna. Seven other disciples 
were ordained Bishops, and sent to found Churches 
in Spain, viz Torquatus, Ctesiphon, Secundus, 
Indaletus, Caecilius, Hesychius, and Euphrasius. 
St Polycarp, the disciple of St. John the Evange- 
list, was ordained Bishop of Smyrna. By the 
Angels of the seven Churches in Asia, mentioned 
in the Apocalypse, are meant the seven Bishops 
who governed those sees. All those local and par- 
ticular Churches were linked together in the same 
Communion, with due subordination, and by this 
means they only composed one Catholic Churchy one 
mystical body, one skeefifold under one shepherd, and 
one visible head. They ail persevered in the doctrine 
of the Apostles, and believed and taught all the di- 
vine truths revealed by Jesus Christ, as they had re- 
ceived them from the Apostles, and from their dis- 
ciples and successors, who were regularly called, 
ordained, and authorized by them, and to whom 
they communicated the same necessary powers, 
which they had received from Jesus Christ, to 
govern the Church that, he had purchased with his 
blood, and, according to their example and instruc- 
tions, to revive, carry on, and perpetuate an hier- 
archy and lawful succession of pastors, co-operat- 
ing in the great work of the ministry to the end 



CMURCK OF CHRIST. 35 

of time for the salvation of souls ; for as in a tem- 
poral lepublic no person is to usurp the reins of 
government, or to thrust himself into the functions 
of public power, unless he be duly authorized and 
deputed thereto, so in like manner no one is to in- 
trude himself into the pastoral office, or presume to 
exercise the sacred powers of the Priesthood in the 
spiritual kingdom of the Church, unless he be 
called to that high office, and be onsained and law- 
fully sent. Even St. Paul and St. Barnabas, though 
immediately called by Heaven, could not exercise 
the functions of the Priesthood until they were or- 
dained and sent by the pastors of the Church, as 
appears from the 13th c of the Acts, 3d v. which 
plainly shows the necessity of a lawful mission, and 
how little credit is to be given to new gospellers, 
*tvho do not enter into the sheepfold by the door ; St. 
John 10; but come of their own accord, and by 
their own private authority, like the false prophets 
in the Old Law. How can they preach, unless they 
be sent? Rom. 10. 15. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The stupendous Progress of the Christian Religion^ 
and the happy Fruits it produced in the World. 

JESUS CHRIST had foretold that his Gospel 
should be preached all over the world, and that 
after his death he would draw all things to himself, 
when he would be exalted from the earth, and fas- 
tened on the cross. He had compared the preach- 
ing of the Gospel, in its weak beginning, to a grain 
of mustard seed, which, from the least of all seeds, 
grows to such an height as to surpass all the other 
shrubs. Mat. 13. He had also compared it to a 
little leaven, which being hid in the dough, spreads 
through the whole mass, and changes its nature by 
imparting its own ^qualities. To see his predictions 
accomplished, and to be convinced that the esta- 



36 HISTORY OF THE 

blishment of his Church was a divine work beyond 
the reach of the least suspicion or possibility of 
error or imposture, we need but consider the amaz- 
ing rapidity and success with which the Christian 
Religion was embraced and propagated all over the 
known world, by instruments and means in them- 
selves so weak and inadequate to the undertaking. 
In the first place, ail human considerations con- 
spired against Christianity : No doctrine could ever 
be less calculated to meet with any reception or en- 
couragement in a world that was strangely attached 
to an old religion, settled and confirmed by a long 
prescription of many ages. The Christian Religion 
thwarted all the darling inclinations of nature, and 
tended directly to pull down the pride of the under- 
standing and of the heart, by proposing mysteries 
that appeared almost incredible, and by command- 
ing things that seemed impracticable. It preached 
a God made man, rejected and put to death by his 
own people. It declared war against idolatry and 
superstition ; and was entirely opposite to the re- 
ceived maxims and prejudices of the world. It 
taught self-denial and mortification, and inculcated 
the necessity of loving even our professed enemies ; 
of doing good to them that hate us, and forgiving 
from our hearts all injuries and affronts. It recom- 
mended a contempt of what is generally admired, 
and enforced the obligation of being humble in our 
own eyes, of flying the applause of men in the 
performance of good works, and seeing in all 
things the honour and glory of God. In short, it 
counteracted the favourite passions of mankind, and 
absolutely required a virtuous life in all its profes- 
sors. Nevertheless, these new maxims, these self- 
denying principles, these sublime mysteries of the 
Gospel, were universally embraced, adopted, and 
established, with such speed and success, that we 
must here acknowledge the finger of the Most High, 
and confess that the conversion of the world to the 
Christian religion was one of the most stupendous 
and the most evident of miracles. 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 37 

This success was the more astonishing, as the in- 
struments chosen by Jesus Christ for this great 
design were seemingly unequal, disproportionate, 
and unfit for laying the foundation of such a struc- 
ture as the planting of his Church upon the ruins 
of Paganism and the destruction of the Jewish 
Synagogue : Twelve poor fishermen by trade, with- 
out either power, interest, or credit to favour so 
great an undertaking. They had no riches to 
bribe men into their religion, no armies to force 
them to it, no learning to impose tiport t'vem, no 
politics to over-reach them, no rhetoric to recom- 
mend their cause by studied and eloquent discourse 
es. They were not possessed of those natural en- 
dowments, which might make impression on their 
hearers, and conciliate their minds to a new doc- 
trine. - They were men chosen from the lowest 
conditions of life, destitute of all human succour, and 
without the advantages of education. Men, who by 
the obscurity ol their birth and by their natural pu- 
sillanimity, were accustomed to tremble before peo- 
ple in power, and whom Christ himself compared to 
sheefi in the midst of wolves. Yet it was by instruments 
and means in themselves so weak, that the predic- 
tions of Christ, relative to the success of the gospel 
and the propagation of the Christian religion, were 
speedily and most wonderfully accomplished. After 
the Holy Ghost had shed his beams upon them, they 
were instantly changed into other men. They were 
inspired with such a spirit of zeal, and such super- 
natural force of elocution, as was not to be resisted. 
They entered the lists against troops of sophists* 
orators, and philosophers, and combated the false 
maxims of Pagan antiquity. They confuted, con- 
founded, and triumphed over the proud scholars of 
Plato's academy, of Aristotle's lycseum and of the 
porticos of the Stoics. They were endued with an 
intrepidity which no torments could subdue, nor 
death intimidate. They received a spirit of hea- 
venly knowledge and light, a spirit of sanctity and 
charity, a spirit of fortitude and strength, which 
enabled them to beat down the eloquence and learn- 
D 



38 HISTORY OF THE 

ing of the philosophers and sages amongst both 
the Jews and Gentiles, and to triumph over the com- 
bined oppositions of the kings and powers of the 
earth. So powerful was the spirit of God which 
enlightened their understandings, and spoke by their 
mouths ; and such was the evidence of their testi- 
mony, confirmed by innumerable miracles, and by 
the heavenly temper and sanctity which their words 
and actions breathed, that it was impossible for the 
most obstinate infidel to harbour the least suspicion 
of human contrivance. The miraculous powers 
with which they were vested from above, were, X 
may say, the credentials of Heaven that indicated 
the truth of their doctrine, and stamped on it the 
seal of divine attestation in the brightest characters. 
This made Picus of Mirandula say, u If I could 
" be deceived in thy faith, thou alone, O Lord, 
" must have been the author of my error, so evi- 
M dent are the marks of thy authority which it 
" bears." This also mado St. Augustine say, lib. 
22. de Civ. c. 8. " Whoever still asks for miracles, 
** before he will be induced to believe the Gospel, 
" is himself a prodigy of incredulity, who will not 
*< believe such a doctrine, which he sees the whole 
*< world has been compelled by clear conviction to 
« believe." 

To all who sincerely seek after truth, it is evi- 
dently a pillar of light ; and if to the perverse it is 
sometimes turned into a cloud of darkness, it is be- 
cause the beams of this sun, though most bright 
and piercing, become impervious to their pride and 
passions. No sooner did the Christian Religion 
make its appearance, than it began to lay open to 
view the errors to which mankind had been enslaved, 
and to withdraw the veil of ignorance which had 
overshadowed human reason. It diffused the good 
odour of the Christian virtues of meekness and 
humility on all sides, and warmed the hearts of sin- 
ners by its divine flames. It united Jews and Gen- 
tiles, people of different countries, humours, man- 
ners, and interests, in the bonds of fraternal love. 
It associated together in the same fold lions, bears. 



CHURCH OF CHRSIT. o* 

wolves, and tygers, with the sheep and the lambs, 
as the prophet Isaiah had foretold with astonishments 
It joined in the same communion men of different 
nations, who had been insatiable as wolves by ava- 
rice, furious as tygers with anger, revenge, and 
jealousy, crafty as bears by dissimulation and hypo- 
crisy, haughty and uncontrollable as lions by am- 
bition and pride. ft perfectly extinguished ;these 
passions in the breasts of the first believers, and 
transformed into lambs the furious wild beasts who 
had torn in pieces the innocent Lamb of God, and 
who had gloried before in destroying their fellow 
creatures. Was any thing but a divine hand able 
to work such a wonderful change in the world, and 
to strike such a heavenly concord out of such a 
jarring discord of complexions, constitutions, and 
interests ? Such were the happy fruits that the 
Christian religion produced in the infancy of the 
Church. A new people was formed, and the new 
sacrifice and pure oblation, foretold by the prophet 
Malachy, began to be offered in every place. The 
wild olive tree, as St. Paul speaks, Rom. 11. was 
grafted into the good olive tree, in order to partake of 
its root and fatness. The Gentiles were united in 
spirit to the converted Jews, and made with them 
one tree, one body, one people. Thus they enter- 
ed into the stock of Abraham, became his chidren 
by faith, and partook of the promises which had 
been made to him. The multitude of the believers, 
says St. Luke, Acts 4, 32. had but one heart and o?ie 
souL The very Heathens themselves admired the 
perfect union and harmony they lived in, and, as 
Tertullian informs us, were often heard to say, with 
surprise, See, how the Christians love each other. 
They learned from the example of their teachers so 
perfect a spirit of disinterestedness, contempt of the 
world, and thirst after eternal goods, that they lived 
in common, and retained no possessions which were 
not devoted to the service of the community. The 
cold words mine and thine, by which charity is often 
extinguished among men, were unknown to them. 
They had no desire of riches, but such as were spi- - 



HISTORY OF THE 

ritual. They knew no other ambition than to serve 
and to be subject to all in Christ. They were so 
perfectly disengaged from the transitory things of 
this life, that the rich sold their estates, laid the 
price at the feet of the Apostles, and consecrated it 
to God, that it might be equally distributed to such 
as were indigent, no^ one looking upon what he 
possessed as belonging to himself more than to his 
-neighbour. A rigorous judgment befel Ananias 
and Saphira his wife, for having avariciously and 
secretly retained to themselves a part of the money 
they had received for a field they had sold : They 
hypocritically pretended to resign the whole price 
to the public use, and told a lie to the Holy Ghost, 
in the person of his ministers; wherefore, St. Peter 
having reprimanded them for their fraudulent pro- 
ceedings, and for the breach of the vow and pro- 
mise they had made to God, the husband first, and 
afterward the wife, fell down dead at his feet. 
The faithful, greatly alarmed at this melancholy 
disnslGv,fier severed in the doctrine of the jlfiostles, in 
firayer, and in the communion of the breaking of bread, 
Acts 4, 2. that is to say, in the participation of 
the holy mysteries of the Divine Eucharist. Their 
numility, simplicity of heart, meekness, patience, 
and other virtues, were such, that, to use the ex- 
pression of St. John Chrysostom, they seemed to be 
transformed into Angels. They were not swayed by 
passion, nor led astray by private views : Their 
chief concern was to serve and honour God by the 
pious exercises of religion. They appeared, by 
the sanctity of their conduct, to form a new com- 
munity, entirely different from the rest of mankind ; 
and they practised such transcendent and heroic 
virtues as before were deemed impossible, Some, 
who were called Ascetics, renounced all the plea- 
sures of the world, and entered into courses of the 
severest austerities of mortification, fasting, and 
self-denial, after the example of St. John the Bap- 
tist and the Prophets. Others, in imitation of the 
Apostles, who recommended virginity, and who, 
from the commencement of their apostleship and vo- 



CHUUCH OF CHRIST. 4* 

cation to the ministry, had embraced a state of per- 
petual continency, consecrated themselves to God 
by vows of chastity, Acts 21. and led a life entirely 
new, entirely interior, entirely spiritual.^ They 
employed their time in heavenly exercises, in hymns 
and canticles of praise and thanksgiving, says St. 
Ambrose, in contemplating the perfections of the 
Supreme Being, in meditating on his bountiful dis- 
pensations to mankind, and in aspiring after that 
state of bliss which they hoped to succeed to, after 
this present life. Even they, who before had been 
slaves to voluptuousness, and victims of their pas- 
sions, became on a sudden chaste and temperate? 
meek and humble of heart, as soon as they were 
baptized and confirmed by the imposition of the 
hands of the Apostles. They were filled with the 
Holy Ghost, and changed into Christians eminent 
for their piety and other heroic virtues. It is im- 
possible to enumerate the instances of the rich that 
impoverished themselves to relieve the poor : of 
the poor that preferred poverty to riches ; of the 
virgins that imitated upon earth the life of angels ; 
of the penitents who embraced the rigours and 
austerities of penance and mortification with greater 
ardour than others did pleasures ; or of the cha- 
ritable pastors, who made themselves all things to 
all men, ever ready to bestow upon their flocks not 
only their watchings and labours, but their very 
lives. Multitudes of converts, charmed by the ex- 
amples of such shining virtues, flocked every Say 
to the standard of Jesus Christ, and were incorpo- 
rated in his Church. These were the precious 
fruits that the gospel then brought forth, and it 
was thus that the infancy of the Church was deco- 
rated with the highest ornaments of religion, and 
its divine origin was demonstrated by the edifying 
lives of the primitive Christians. This was truly 
the age of Christian perfection, and in it the Lord 
was pleased to set up the most eminent models of all 
the virtues human nature is capable of, that the 
world might see the power of his grace and the ex- 
cellence of his doctrine, and that all future ages 
D 2 



42 HISTORY OF THE 

might have before their eyes a specimen of a reli- 
gious life, a;id illustrious examples of perfection, 
for their encouragement and emulation. 



CHAPTER V. 

The necessity and excellency of the Christian Re- 
ligion evinced from the defective systems of Pagan 
Philosophy. 

WHEN the light of the Gospel appeared on earth, 
it dispelled the darkness of Paganism and supersti- 
tion, and discovered by its native lustre the imper- 
fection of all the systems of doctrine and precepts of 
morality laid down by the philosophers of antiquity 
for the conduct of life, and held in admiration for 
many ages, much after the same manner that, when 
the great luminary of the day comes forth, the light 
of the stars of the firmament, which strike us with 
their lustre and shine with advantage in the night, 
begins to fade an 3 vanish out of sight We admire* 
In the writings of Flato, Seneca, Tully, Plutarch, 
Marcus Aurelius, and other heathen philosophers, 
many excellent dictates and precepts of morality. — 
To wear quite out the knowledge of virtue and the 
image of God originally stamped on the rational soul, 
has been beyond the power of the vices of men or the 
malice of devils It was an effect of the Divine 
Goodness, that the traces of this image should be 
preserved amidst the ruins that followed the defec- 
tion of man from his Creator, that he might always 
h*\" some knowledge of evil, and he condemned by 
the testimony of his owr. conscience, if he sinned, 
and that by these helps he might apply himself t« 
know and seek God, and discover the conformity of 
his ;»iosi sublime revealed law with the law of reason. 
Nevertheless, how imperfect and insufficient a guide 
reason alone is, u\ the path of per feci morality, and 
how much it stands in i«eed of the superior light of 
revelation 5 is manifest, because religion alone can. 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 43 

point out the remedy and true cause of our spiritual 
wounds and corruption, an J both teach us and con- 
duct us to our last end. Reason alone tells us, in- 
deed, that we should adore G ;ti, that we should 
love him, and pay him an in eriofc worship; but the 
bare light of reason does not sufficiently instruct us 
in the nature of this adoration-, of this love and wor- 
ship which God requires of us, or in the conse- 
quences that result from the practice of them : it 
was necessary to receive information on these ob- 
jects from a revealed Ri ligion ; it is it that points 
out to us the origin of our duties* in the positive 
will of God ; the detail of them in his command- 
ments and prohibitions; the motives for the observ- 
ance of them in his supreme dominion, in our rela- 
tions with him, and in his promises and threats ; the 
means which enable us to observe them, in the su- 
pernatural helps which God offers us — in the sacra- 
ments, which are the channels of them — in prayer, 
which obtains them — and in vigilance, which guards 
and preserves them. Our reason is confined : it is 
with great difficulty that it acquires the knowledge 
of those truths, which it is of the greatest importance 
to know— A supernatural revelation was wanting to 
enlarge its lights. Our reason is uncertain : it finds 
unanswerable difficulties in the most evident dogmas 
—A revelation was necessary to dissipate its doubts. 
Our reason is slow in its progress : it stands in need 
of study, meditation, and researches; few men are 
capable of these, and almost all are taken up with 
other concerns — It was necessary that revelation 
should place truth within the reach of every one, as 
every one is equally interested in knowing it. Our 
reason is weak in its efforts : although it is sensible 
of the advantage of virtue, it is turned aside from it 
by the passions; man must therefore be engaged to 
practise it by a powerful interest, the fear of punish- 
ment and the hopes of reward. Revelation therefore 
was necessary, to render the knowledge of truth 
more clear, more enlarged, more certain, more com* 
mon, more efficacious. 



40 HISTORY OF THE 

The experience of many ages, before the divine 
dispensation, is sufficient to show that human rea- 
soning is too weak, without the assistance of the 
superior light of revelation, even to direct us safely 
in all the paths of moral virtue. In the present 
depraved state of human nature, it may be compared 
to a weak glimmering light in a dark night, which 
rather serves to show a traveller that he is wander- 
ing out of the road, than to direct him in the right 
way. If too confidently followed, and if relied on in 
things beyond its sphere, it easily leads astray. — 
Even in many points, in which it is given to be a 
guide, it is often eclipsed by the passions, and be- 
comes liable to errors. Aristotle, the most compre- 
hensive genius of antiquity, relying too much on it, 
fell into many glaring errors, which several heretics 
of the first age adopted against the Gospel, on which 
account he is called by Tertullian the Patriarch of 
Heretics. Many other philosophers were remarkable 
for the strength of their genius and learning, and yet 
they never were able, by the force of their reason 
and study, to attain a knowledge of the great super- 
natural truths of eternity, as these truths do not fall 
under the senses and reason, so as to be examined 
or investigated by them. Unaware of the weakness 
of human reason, unassisted by revelation, they in- 
deed imagined that they could attain to wisdom by 
the sole strength of reason ; but this dangerous per- 
suasion alone was sufficient to lead them into many 
extravagant and gross errors. What contradictions 
do we not meet in their doctrines ! What prejudices ! 
To how many vices did they give the name of vir- 
tues ! How many crimes did they canonize ! What 
gross mistakes, even about the Divinity itself, and 
the Sovereign Good ! Varro relates more than two 
hundred and eighty different opinions on that single 
article ; some, with Epicurus, teaching that it con- 
sisted in voluptuousness; others, with the Stoics? 
placing it in virtue ; others, with the Peripatetics, 
making it consist in knowledge, Sec Thales, the 
prince of naturalists, being asked by Croesus what 



CHURCH OF CHRIST, 45 

God was, put off that prince from time to time, say- 
ing, I" will consider on it ; a question which the most 
illiterate Christian could easily resolve. Plato, indeed, 
is remarkable for several noble sentiments on the 
attributes of the Deity, particularly on his pravi- 
dence ; and his doctrine on the rewards and punish- 
ments in a future state is really admirable ; but in 
his travels through Egypt and Phoenicia, he learned 
many traditional truths delivered down from the pa- 
triarchal ages. The lessons and maxims found in the 
Enchiridion of Epictetus, and in the Meditations of 
Marcus Aurelius the philosopher, are truly sublime; 
but these practical treatises are rather vain-glorious 
boasts, or high flights of eloquence, than suitable 
antidotes against the most dangerous vices Such 
empty exclamations on the beauty of virtue cannot 
subdue or regulate the heart of man, or restrain the 
sallies of his passions : it is only in the Christian Re- 
ligion that we find and possess this true wisdom, It 
is it that teaches us the great mysteries of our re- 
demption, and applies to our souls the remedies of 
©ur justification, and the means of salvation. It is 
religion that teaches us to love God with our whole 
heart, and above all things* It is religion that 
directs us to love our neighbour, even our enemies, 
in God and for God. It is religion that guides us 
to seek the glory of God, and not our own ; to please 
him, and not ourselves ; to refer ourselves, and all 
that we do, to him, as to our first beginning and last 
end ; and to place our true happiness in the eternal 
enjoyment of him, and not in any of the perishable 
things of this transitory life. These glorious ends of 
charity and universal benevolence are not attainable 
on any other but the principles of religion. 

The beauty of the Christian morality and the sanc- 
tity of its faithful professors, appear nowhere to 
greater advantage, than when they are contrasted 
with the imperfect systems and false virtues of the 
most famous sages of the Heathen world. The very 
best of them were strangers to the first lessons of 
Christian morality. They knew not the name, much 
less the practice of humility, though this virtue is 



46 HISTORY OF THE 

nearly allied to truth, which they pretended to pur- 
sue. In all the lessons which they gave against- 
vice, they only taught men to sacrifice the lesser 
passions to the greater, or to a more refined self- 
love, pride, and vain-glory. The ultimate end, 
which they proposed, went no further than their dear 
selves, and their own interest and glory, or, at most, 
the good of virtue in itself, without any reference to 
God, or to his eternal rewards or punishments. If 
in many of them we admire great examples of zeal 
for justice, of temperance in prosperity, of patience 
in adversity, of generosity, of courage, and the like ; 
these were often shadows and phantoms, that daz- 
zled aiid imposed on the eyes of men, rather than 
real virtues, because, as they sprung from a principle 
of vanity, or at least were tainted with a more refined 
pride and vain glory, they were vitiated by a bad in- 
tention, and infected with the poison of their origin, 
as waters, which come from a poisonous spring, re- 
tain their malignant quality, through whatever de- 
lightful channels or gi oves tfiey may happen to pass, 
Hence St. Jerome calls the ancient philosophers 
animals of fame, who basely drudged for the breath 
of the people. Tertullian also calls them traders in 
fame. Where is the' similitude, says he, between a 
Philosopher and a Christian ? a disciple of Greece 
and of Heaven ? a trader in fame and a saver of 
souls ? between a man of words and a man of works ? 
Apol. c. 46. The Pyrrhonians, the Sceptics, and 
Academics, had nothing else in view but to puzzle 
the other sects, and to ensnare them with their subtle 
sophisms. The Stoics were inaccessible to all the 
feelings of humanity. One cannot read without 
astonishment the number of Temples that Greece 
was filled with, and the prostitutions that were esta- 
blished there for the worship of Venus. Solon 
erected at Athens a Temple to the honour of tha: 
Goddess, and the gravest of their philosophers for- 
bad drinking to excess, if it was not on the feast of 
Bacchus, and to the honour of that false God. They 
were sensible that there was another God, very dif- 
ferent from those whom the vulgar adored. Yet 



CHURCH OF CHRIST, 4? 

Seneca, Socrates, Cicero, &c. with all their learning, 
fell into such gross absurdities, that they themselves 
basely worshipped and sacrificed to stocks and 
stones with the vulgar. Seneca, a native of Cordo- 
va in Spain, and the Son of a Roman knight, is justly 
admired for the compass of his learning, the liveli- 
ness of his imagination, the elevation of his thoughts, 
and the many excellent lessons of moral virtue, 
which are delivered in his works. His great abste- 
miousness and some other virtues are justly com- 
mended. But if we inquire into his conduct, we 
shall find his virtue tainted with pride, and even fall 
short of that of a moral Heathen. His immense 
riches, his stately palace and villas, his most sump- 
tuous furniture, in which himself counts five hun- 
dred tables of cedar, supported by ivory feet, all 
alike, jewels above price, with every other most 
costly thing, very ill suited with his stoic philoso- 
phy. Much less excusable were the excessive 
usuries, with which he oppressed and pillaged great 
part not only of Italy, but also of Britain : his com- 
plaisance also to Nero, on many unwarrantable oc- 
casions ; his flattery after the poisoning of Britan- 
nicus, his acceptance of his palace and gardens after 
his unjust death, &c. To his last breath he was an 
enthusiastic advocate for suicide ; took hemlock af- 
ter his veins were opened, and when the poison did 
not operate, would be removed into a hot bath to ac- 
celerate his own death. When Socrates was ac- 
cused of denying the Gods, which the public adored, 
he vindicated himself from it as from a crime ; and 
when he was upon the point of expiring, he ordered 
a cock to be sacrificed to jEsculapius. Plato, his 
disciple, who saw all Greece filled with this absurd 
and scandalous worship, durst not oppose the public 
error. It was from him the Stoics derived their 
proud maxim : The wise man is self-sufficient. Ci- 
cero patronized revenge, though nothing is so heroic 
as for a man to forgive an injury, to vanquish his 
passions, and learn to govern his own soul. The 
least exertion of patience, meekness, humility, or 
charity, is something much greater and more advan- 



48 HISTORY OF THE 

tageous than the conquest of an empire would be. 
For Alexander once to have curbed his anger, on 
ever so small an occasion, would have been a far 
more glorious victory than all his conquests, even 
if his wars had been just. Pythagoras and Zeno af- 
fected tyranny, and Epictetus allowed a man to be 
proud of the conquest of any vice. Aristotle could 
not sit easy, until he proudly made his friend Her- 
mias sit below him ; and he was as gross a flatterer 
of Alexander for the sake of vanity, as Plato was 
of Dionysius for the sake of his belly. Diogenes 
could not be contented in his tub without gratifying 
his passions ; and when with his dirty feet he trod 
upon Plato's costly carpets, crying that he trarppled 
upon the pride of Plato, he did this, as Plato an- 
swered him, with greater pride. But among all the 
impious, absurd, and false maxims of the Pagan, 
Greek, and Roman philosophers, scarce any thing 
was more monstrous than the manner in which they 
canonized suicide, in distress, as a remedy against 
temporal miseries, and a point of heroism. It is 
strange, that any people should by false prejudices 
be able so far to extinguish the most evident prin- 
ciples of reason, and the voice of nature, as to deem 
suicide an action of courage, since it springs from a 
total want of that heroic virtue, and implies the ut- 
most excess of pusilanimity, impatience, and cow- 
ardice. To bear all kind of sufferings with unsha- 
ken constancy and virtue, is true courage and great- 
ness of soul, and the test and triumph of virtue : and 
to sink under misfortunes, is the most unworthy 
baseness of soul. Nothing can ever make it lawful for 
any one directly to procure, concur to, or hasten his 
own death. Whoever deliberately lays violent hands 
upon himself, is guilty of a heinous injury against 
God, the Lord of his life : against the common- 
wealth, which he robs of a member, and against him- 
self, by destroying his corporal life, and entailing 
everlasting damnation on his soul ; this crime be- 
ing usually connected with final impenitence, and 
eternal enmity with God. To murder another is 
the greatest temporal injustice a man can commit 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 49 

againstaneighbour,lifebeingol all temporal blessings 
the greatest and the most noble. Suicide of course 
is a crime so much more enormous, as the charity, 
which every one owes to himself, especially to his 
immortal soul, which is here destroyed with the 
body, is stricter, more noble, and of a superior order 
to that which he owes to his neighbour,, Away then 
with the prejudices of Seneca, and the false philo- 
sophy of Lycurgus, who put himself to death, be- 
cause his pride was unable to bear the thought of 
the Lacedemonians correcting the severity of his 
laws. Gross errors, and impious maxims of this 
sort, are discoverable in the doctrine and conduct of 
all the other boasted philosophers of Paganism, 
which plainly shows the incompetence of reason 
alone for our direction in our present corrupted 
state, and that without religion there is no true wis- 
dom. Of human philosophy in these matters a very 
wise man said : I have tried ail things in wisdom, 
I have said, I will be wise, and it departed further 
from me. Eccles. 7. 24. We are therefore obliged 
to acknowledge not only the incomparable advan- 
tages, but also the absolute necessity of divine reve- 
lation. 

God is the sovereign reason who cannot err. His 
w r ord is a flambeau that guides our steps and directs 
our ways. The religion he has revealed both en- 
lightens the mind and regulates the affections and 
appetites of the heart. The holy maxims which he 
has laid down in the gospel, concerning vice and 
virtue, infinitely excel in purity and perfection all 
the most admired lessons of philosophy. Their sub- 
serviency to each other, and the tendency of them 
all together to the common end of religion, are such 
as visibly exceed all human invention, and argue 
Christianity to be the product of a divine mind, and 
the work of an Infinite Being. There is no crime, 
no vice, no sin, even in thought, but it detects, de- 
tests, and prohibits ; no virtue, no perfection, no 
good work but it promotes, prescribes, and excites us 
to. The smallest stain cannot be shown in it. The 
least flaw, the least contradiction can never be fourid 
E 



50 HISTORY OF THE 

in it. Every article of it is conducive to true holi- 
ness. How admirable is the harmony of the awful 
mysteries which it teaches ! How adorable is the 
light of its important and sublime truths ? How pure 
the morality of its precepts ! What powerful means 
of grace and helps of sanctification does it not fur- 
nish ! What cogent motives of divine love ! What 
strong incentives to glorify God by the tender of 
our sacrifices and affections ! How nobly does it 
display before our eyes the goodness and mercy of 
God in the work of our redemption ! Here the Di- 
vine truth and wisdom shine forth with the most ra- 
vishing lustre in a manner worthy a God, Here we 
behold in raptures of astonishment the unparalleled 
charity of our blessed Redeemer, the dreadful enor- 
mity of sin, and our own happy deliverance from 
the powers of Hell. Here our conscience is awak- 
ed and roused by the faith of a future judgment, by 
the hope of an assured resurrection from the dead, 
by a clear revelation of unspeakable rewards pre- 
pared for the just, and by the fear of endless tor- 
ments reserved for the punishment of the reprobate 
in the world to come. In consideration of all these 
great truths, St. Paul calls the Gospel of Christ the 
power of God unto salvation to every one t T *at be- 
lieve th. Rom. 1. 16. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The means established by the Aj[iostles for fire serving 
the Christian religion in its primitive purity. 

EVEN in the days of the Apostles there appear- 
ed false prophets, lying teachers, scoffers, and 
sectaries, whose errors chiefly sprung from the Pa- 
gan principles of the Plantonic philosophy, and 
from a wrong sense and meaning, which they took 
out of the sacred Scriptures, by interpreting it ac- 
cording to their own wild imaginations. The Scrip- 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. pi 

ture itself affirms in express terms, that such false^ 
teachers would rise up among the faithful, and bring 
in sects of perdition, 2 Pet. 2. having an appearance 
of godliness, but speaking lies in hypocrisy, resisting 
the truth, departing from the faith, and having their 
consciences seared. 1 and 2 Tim. 3 and 4 c. It also 
assures us that in the Epistles of St. Paul there are 
some things hard to be understood, which the un- 
learned and the unstable wrested, as they did also 
the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. 2 Pet. 
3. 18. The Apostles, foreseeing what was to hap- 
pen, and solicitous to preserve the deposit of faith 
intrusted to them, pure and inviolate throughout all 
future ages, took particular care to warn the faithful 
against such teachers, and to exhort them to stick 
close to the doctrine which they had delivered to 
them, and to teach the same inviolate to their poste- 
rity. 1 and 2 Tim. They strictly charged their suc- 
cessors in office, as well as the flock committed to 
their instruction, to avoid and shun all the broachers 
of profane novelties, whose speech spreadeth like a 
canker. They commanded them to contend earnestly 
for the faith once delivered to the saints, to adhere 
firmly to the sound doctrine they had received from 
the beginning, and to defend it zealously against all 
seducers, blasphemers, and gain savers, who subvert 
whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, 
for filthy lucre's sake. They ordered them not to 
add, diminish, alter, corrupt or deviate one single 
iota from the faith, though an Angel from Heaven 
should teach and preach up a contrary doctrine ; be- 
cause an error, though in one point, in one single ar-^ 
tide, is a removing from the grace — and perverting 
the Gospel of Christ. Gal. 1. 6,7, 8. In short, 
the Apostles laid it down as an invariable rule, to be 
carefully observed in every succeeding generation, 
that the least change or alteration should never be 
made in the doctrine of faith, but that the self-same 
revealed truths, which were believed and taught by 
them in the first age of the Church, should be carefully 
handed down to posterity, entire and uncorrupted, 



$2 HISTORY OF THE 

This principle the) 7 established as a fence and barrie'r 
For the continual preservation of the true faith, and 
as a most effectual means to convey it to every suc- 
ceeding* generation, without the smallest addition^ 
diminution, or deviation. Hence St. Paul, 2 Thess. 
11. 14. says : Stand Jast, my brethren, and hold the 
tradition* which ye have learned, whether by word or 
by my e/iistle. It was for this reason that, when some 
Calsc brethren in St Paul's absence had persuaded 
the Galatians that it was necessary to join circumci- 
i with the gospel, the Apostle wrote to them on 
purpose to correct this delusion, and to prevent them 
from innovating-, altering, or adulterating the doctrine 
of faith. He likewise undercook a journey to Jeru- 
salem for the purpose of conferring and deliberating 
h the Apostles, priests, and elders of the Church 
about this question, which began to be controverted 
i a degree of warmth in the city of Antioch, where 
many, who had been converted from Judaism, and 
who were still strongly attached to the law of Moses, 
raised violent disputes, and insisted that such of the 
Gentiles as were converted from Paganism to Chris- 
tity, could not be saved unless they were circum- 
ed and observed the other ceremonies of the Mo- 
law. On this occasion a council of the Apostles 
and Elders of the Church was assembled at Jerusa- 
lem in the year 5 1. St. Clement of Alexandria as- 
sures us that all the Apostles were present at this 
ouncil. St. Luke only mentions St. Peter and St. 
roes, with St. Paul and St. Barnabas, who also 
Isted thereat, and recounted the progress which 
y had made by their preaching among the Gen- 
St. Peter presided in this assembly, and hav- 
maturely considered and discussed the matter m 
debate, he made a discourse to snow that the obliga- 
of the Jewish ceremonies was not to be laid on 
rite Gentile converts ; for the ceremonial precepts 
and rites being all types, that pointed out the Re- 
deemer to come, were to cease when they were ac- 
complished by the new law of the Gospel. As 
jigurcs and shadows they were banished, and gi 



CHURCH OF CHRth' J3* 

place to the reality and substance. St. Peter havihgr 
first pronounced sentence, his determination was se- 
conded by St. James, the Bishop of Jerusalem, who 
proved by the testimonies of the Prophets, that the 
observance of the legal ceremonies was no longer 
necessary, and that the Gentiles ought not to be 
subjected to the burden and servitude of the Mosiac 
law. The doctrine of St. Peter, supported thus by* 
the local Pastor of Jerusalem, was by the Council 
formed into a decree, which began with>these words : 
It has seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and tons, &c. 
to signify that the Holy Ghost explicates himself, and 
speaks to the faithful by the Pastors of the Church, 
as his organs, and the depositories of his revealed 
truths; and consequently, that their decisions and 
decrees in these matters are to be considered as dic- 
tated by him. These were the means established 
and practised by the Apostles in the first century, for* 
preventing innovations and schisms amongst the 
faithful, and for settling and finally deciding this first 
controversy about religion. And these likewise are 
the means to which the pastors of the Church in 
succeeding ages have had recourse, after the exam- 
ple of the Apostles, in order to preserve the faith in 
its primitive purity, and to settle disputes, whenever 
any dogmatical point of received doctrine happened 
to be impugned, controverted, or called in question,. 
Either general, national, provincial, or diocesan coun- 
cils and synods have been held, for the purpose of 
settling and determining all such disputes and dif- 
ferences as arose about religious matters, or for 
making regulation in discipline and morals. And 
really y as Christ our Lord declared it necessary that 
heresies and scandals should arise, ir was also neces- 
sary that his Church should be provided with a re- 
medy- against them, and have some eiTeciuid means 
to recur to, in order to separate the tares from the 
good grain, and retrench scandals and abuse s« when* 
ever they occur. 

The chief errors that were broach d i, r.l.e cipos- 
/tolic age, were those of Simon the Magician, Cerin^- 
E. % 



54 HISTORY OF THE 

thus, Menander, Ebion, Saturninus, Basilides, and 
the Nicolaits, so called from Nicholas, one of the 
Seven Deacons. In process of time an almost in- 
credible number of Gnostics and other sectaries 
started up, began to dogmatize, and attempted to 
subvert the faith. They adopted the grossest ab- 
surdities and the most impious tenets ; but their er- 
rors created horror, and at their first appearance 
were immediately condemned and refuted by the 
pastors of the Church in their respective sees, when 
they could not freely and publicly assemble in coun- 
cil, on account of the violent persecutions of the 
Pagan emperors. The Gnostics were a sect, that 
boasted of extraordinary light and knowledge of un- 
known mysteries, particularly in composing combi- 
nations and genealogies of aeons, or attributes and 
operations of the Deity. Their principles were de- 
testable, and led them to all kinds of libertinism and 
abominable practices. The errors of the Nicolaits 
rather regarded manners than faith; for which rea- 
son St. Clement of Alexandria reproaches them on- 
ly for their immoralities and debaucheries. Caius, 
a priest of the Church of Rome, and St. Denis, of 
Alexandria, reprehend the Cerinthians for teaching, 
among many other errors, that the reign of Jesus 
Christ would be terrestrial, and that it would consist 
arnal delights, sensual pleasures, feasts, and con- 
tinual sacrifices for the space of a thousand yei 
before the day of judgment. This opinion is called 
the Millenarian system. It never was a doctrine of 
faith, nor proposed by the Church to be believed as 
such, although some few of the Fathers admitted a 
"Millenarian reign of Christ on earth, in spiritual 
pleasures with his elect. They were herein misled 
by Papias, a disciple of St. John the Evangelist^ 
iv ho being a man of a very moderate understanding, 
as Eusebius says, for want of comprehending what 
he heard from the Apostles, took literally what was 
said in a mystical sense. But this point was after- 
wards cleared up, and the mistake was corrected by 
consulting the tradition of the whole Church, Thi 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. iJ5 

system of the Millenarians, says Calmet, owes its 
origin to the Jews, who expected to reign a thousand 
years with the Messiah on earth. Some of the an- 
cients also inferred this erroneous opinion from a pas- 
sage of the Apocalypse and Isaiah misunderstood ; 
but, instead of having any foundation in the sacred 
text, it is refuted by it, and has been long exploded, 
as contrary to the Gospel, and to the doctrine of 
St. Paul. 

As to the errors of Simon the Magician, they 
chiefly sprung from the system of the Platonists, 
and gave rise to most of the heresies of the first ages, 
Simon, that bane of mankind, as Eusebius calls him, 
being expelled from the East by St. Peter, repaired 
to the city of Rome, with his favourite Helena, and 
imposed on the people there by his sorceries. The 
Infernal Spirit was permitted to oppose these illu- 
sions and artifices to the true miracles of Jesus Christ, 
he was suffered in Egypt to assist the magicians of 
Pharaoh against Moses. It is from this Simon that 
the crime of selling any spiritual thing for a tempo- 
ral price is called Simony ; and to maintain that 
practice lawful, is usually termed in the canon law, 
the heresy of Simon Magus. He strove in all things 
to rival Christ. He pretended to be the Messiah, 
and often called himself the Holy Ghost, which 
name he also gave sometimes to the concubine He- 
lena, whom he had purchased at Tyre, and to whom 
he desired Divine honours to be paid under the 
figure of Minerva. He had many followers in Rome, 
and at length gained so high a reputation, that a 
statue was erected to him in the isle of Tiber, with 
this inscription : Simoni Deo Sancto. St. Justin 
Martyr, who was a person of great learning and 
gravity, and of a genius wonderfully inquisitive about 
matters of ihis nature, and well acquainted with all 
the mythology of the Heathens, assures us hereof, 
in his Apology addressed to the emperor, to the 
senate, and to all the people of Rome, whom he 
pressed to demolish this statue. St. Justin lived then 
in Rome, and repeats this twice in his great Apology, 



56 HISTORY OF THE 

and in his Dialogue with Trypho, the philosopher- 
which he would never have had the assurance to do, 
were it not a real fact, as the Heathens could not ' 
fail to take notice of, and resent such a blunder, and 
turn it to the scorn of the apologist and his religion, 
which they never did. Tertullian, Eusebius, Theo- 
doret, St. Cyril, and St. Augustine say, that this 
statue was erected to Simon by the public authority 
of the senate and the emperor Claudius, who suc- 
ceeded that barbarous tyrant Caius Caligula, who 
wished the Roman people had but one neck, that he 
might cut it off at one stroke. It was under Clau- 
dius that Great Britain w r as reduced to the form of a 
Roman province. His mother Antonia, when she 
met with any very silly fellow, was accustomed to 
say : He is as great a fool as my son Claudius. His 
first wife Messalina was capable of persuading him 
to any thing she pleased, a greater idiot having ne- 
ver worn the imperial purple, being therefore cal- 
led a child with grey hairs. His second wife, Agrip- 
pina, pushed him on to many extravagancies, and 
prevailed on him to adopt Nero, who was her son 
by Domitius, her first husband, and who, in the 
year 51, ascended the imperial throne after the death 
of Claudius, who was poisoned by Agrippina. The 
young prince governed five years with great cle- 
mency, leaving the direction of all things to his 
master Seneca, the philosopher, and to Burrhus, the 
prefect of the praetorian cohorts, except that he 
poisoned his brother Britannicus, the son of Claudius, 
by Messalina, whilst they were supping together. — 
In the year 58, he killed his own mothiv, Agrippina, 
and from that im< • • became the greatest monster 
of cv.ieit- i " it perhaps ever disgraced the 

human speci ei Si noil Magus found means to in- 
gratiate himself with t is tyrant, and by his vain 
boastings and illusions could not fail ro please him, 
as Nero was above all mortals infatuated with the 
detestable superstitions of the deceitful art oi ma^ic, 
to the last degree of folly and extravagance Simon 
the Magician called himself the Great Pow<r of 
God, and promised the Emperor, that he would fly 



CHURCH OP CHRIST. 5j 

in the air 5 thus pretending to imitate the ascension 
of Christ. Accordingly by his magical power, and 
by the aid of two daemons, he was carried up into 
the air in a chariot of fire, in the presence of Nero. 
But the most merciful and kind Providence, says 
Eusebius, conducted to Rome Peter, the most cou- 
rageous among the Apostles, in order to defeat the 
impostures of Simon Magus : for this great Apostle, 
in conjunction with St. Paul, seeing the delusion, 
betook themsehes to their prayers, upon which the 
noted impostor fell to the ground, was bruised, broke 
a leg, and died a few days after in rage and confu- 
sion. This wonderful event, though disbelieved by- 
some moderns, is related by St. Justin, St- Ambrose, 
St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Augustine, St. Philastrius, 
St. Isidore of Peiusium, Theodoret, and others. — 
Dion Chrysostomus, a Heathen writer, assures us, 
that Nero kept a long time in his court a certain 
magician, who promised to fly ; and Suetonius says ? 
that at the public games a man undertook to fly in 
the presence of Nero ; but fell in his first essay, and 
his blood even stained the balcony in which the Em- 
peror stood. Some historians say, the resentment of 
the tyrant against the Apostles was much inflamed 
by the misfortune of Simon Magus, and by the con- 
version of several persons of his household, who em- 
braced the faith, particularly his beloved concubine 
and cup-bearer. St. Ambrose tells us. Serin. 63. 
that the Christians entreated St. Peter to withdraw 
for a while, and that yielding to their importunity, he 
made his escape by night; but going out of the gate 
of the city, he met Jesus Christ, or what in a vision 
appeared in his form, and asked him, Lord, whither 
art thou going? Christ answered, / am goi?ig to 
Rome to be crucified again. St. Peter readily under- 
stood this vision to be meant of himself, and taking 
it for a reproof of his cowardice, and a token that it 
was the will of God he should suffer, and follow 
Christ, even to the death of the cross, as Christ had 
foretold him after his resurrection, returned into 
Rome, and being taken, was confined in the Ma- 
mertine prison with St, Paul. The two Apostles, 



58 HISTORY OF THE 

are said to have remained there eight months, dur> 
ing which time they converted and baptized Pro- 
cessus and Martinian, the captains of their guards; 
with forty seven others. 



CHAPTER VIL 

Ml the Afiostles crowned with martyrdom. 

SUCH was the ceconomy, such was the unfathom- 
able wisdom of God, that he was pleased to permit 
his servants, and new acquired people, to be subject- 
ed, during the three first centuries of the Church, 
to the most rigorous trials, and their fidelity to be 
put to the strictest test, by ten bloody persecutions. 
Not only the first preachers of Christianity were per- 
secuted, but also their disciples and followers, who 
adhered to their doctrine. Whole cities rose up 
against them ; entire nations were leagued to de- 
stroy them : philosophers opposed argument ; 
Libertines opposed sensuality ; Pagan Emperors 
opposed torments. Millions of martyrs sealed their 
faith with the effusion of their blood, and laid down 
their lives with joy under these persecutions, in 
testimony of the Gospel. They endured the sharpest 
trials, and the most barbarous cruelties that tyranny 
could invent or inflict, with the meekness of lambs, 
and the simplicity of doves ; and they gloriously 
surmounted every opposition, though the only wea- 
pons with which they encountered the malice of 
their enemies, Mere patience, forbearance, humility, 
and prayer. Divine Providence conducted tfiem 
through the fiery crucible with such courage and in- 
trepidity, that they demonstrated their creed by the 
constancy of their invincible valour ; and bore death 
itself, in its most dreadful shapes, with an amazing 
calmness of mind, recollecting what Christ had said 
in his first sermon on the Mount: Blessed arc ye, 
when they shall revile you and persecute you; be 



CHURCH #F CHRIST. 5? 

glad and rejoice^ for your reward is very great in 
Heaven. 

Thus it appeared visibly that God was the imme- 
diate supporter and defender of his Church, for 
though it lost in its infancy some of its main pillars, 
and was deprived of such a vast number of its pas- 
tors and members, it remained no less firm than 
before, and even grew and gathered strength from 
the most violent persecutions. King Agrippa, who 
had been brought up at Rome in the reign of that 
cruel tyrant Tiberius, called by his own preceptor 
Theodorus Gadareus, a lump of flesh steeped in 
blood, was the first prince that persecuted the 
Church, The first of the Apostles who fell a vic- 
tim under him was St. James the Greater, whom he 
caused to be beheaded in the year 43 at Jerusalem, 
whither he was returned after having preached the 
gospel, with great success, not only to the twelve 
tribes of the Jews in their dispersion over the world, 
but also to the inhabitants of Spain, according to 
the constant tradition of that Church. St. James 
the Lesser, who was called The Just Man^ by the 
very Jews, on account of his austere life and emi- 
nent sanctity, and who had been constituted Bishop 
of Jerusalem by the Apostles before their disper- 
sion, was thrown headlong from the battlements of 
the Temple, received below with a shower of stones 
by the populace, and killed with a blow of a fuller's 
club on the head, in the year 62, because he had, 
in the most solemn and public manner, declared that 
Jesus was seated at the right hand of the Sovereign 
Majesty, and would come in the clouds of Heaven 
to judge the world. Eusebius, 1. 7. c. 19, relates 
that the Episcopal chair of St James was preserved 
with great veneration by the Christians of Jerusa- 
lem, till the fourth century. St. Andrew was cruci- 
fied at Patrse, in Achai*. It is the common opinion, 
that his cross was in the form of the letter X, com- 
posed of two pieces of timber, crossing each other 
obliquely in the middle. When he saw his cross at 
a distance, he is said to have cried out, « H&il, pre- 
a cious cross ! thou hast been consecrated by the 



£0 HISTORY OF 1'HE 

<' body of my Lord, and adorned with his limbs, as 
" with rich jewels — I come to thee exulting with 
" joy ; receive me into thy arms, and present me 
" to my master." St. Thomas suffered martyrdom 
at Calamina, or Meliapor, in the peninsula on this 
side the Ganges, on the coast of Coromandel, where 
his body was discovered, with certain marks that he 
was slam with lances ; it was carried to the city of 
Edessu, where it was honoured with great venera- 
tion, when St. Chrysostom, Rusin, Socrates, Sozo- 
men, and St. Gregory of Tours wrote. St. Philip 
the Apostle is said to have been crucified at Hiera- 
polis, in Phrygia. Some writers have confounded 
iris death with that of St. Philip the Deacon, whose 
four daughters were virgins and prophetesses, Acts 
21. 9. and who probably died at Caesarea. St. 
Bartholomew, who is believed by several learned 
writers to have been the same person with Nathaniel, 
after preaching in India and Persia, was flayed alive, 
and then crucified at Albanus, in Great Armenia- 
St. Matthew, as Venantius Fortunatus relates, suf- 
fered martyrdom at Nadabar, a city in Parthia, after 
preaching to the .Ethiopians, Persians, and Modes. 
Ht. Simon is said to have been crucified in Persia, at 
the instigation of some idolatrous priests. St. Jude, 
ournamed Thaddxus, to distinguish him from the 
Ischariot, is said to have been tied on a cross and 
shot to death with arrows, at Ararat in Armenia, then 
subject to the Parthian empire, and consequently 
esteemed part of Persia. Those who say he died at 
Bcrytus, in Phoenicia, confound him with.-Thaddaeus, 
one of the seventy-two Disciples, who was sent to 
St. Thomas to P.dcssa, where King Abgar and a 
great number of his people are said to have received 
baptism at his hands. It was this disciple that found- 
ed the Churches of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, the two 
capital cities of Assyria. St. Matthias, who, from 
being one of the Seventy-two Disciples was chosen, 
in the room of Judas, a twelfth Apostle, is said to 
have received the crown of Martrydom in Colchis* 
where he was stoned by a number of Savages, and 
then bdicadcd. St. John, being brought to Rome 



CHURCH ©F CHRIST. 61 

by order of Domitian, was cast into a caldron of 
boiling oil, but being miraculously preserved, and 
coaling out more vigorous than before, he was ba- 
nished to the island of Pat mos, in the ^Egean Sea, 
or the Archipelago, where he wrote the admirable 
prophecy of the Apocalypse, which is regarded as 
a summary of the history of the Christian Church, 
through every age, from the date of its birth to its 
triumphant and glorious state in Heaven. 

It is generally asserted* that when St. Peter and 
St. Paul were condemned by Nero, *hey were both 
scourged before they were put to death, as that 
punishment, according to the Roman laws, was 
ahvays inflicted before crucifixion. Eusebius, St. 
Epiphanius, St. Prudentius, and most writers, af- 
firm, that they suffered both together near the 
Ostian Gate, on the 29th of June, in the year 67. 
St. Peter, vvhen he was come to the place of execu- 
tion, requested of the officers that he might be cru- 
cified with his head downwards, alleging, that he 
was not worthy to suffer in the same manner his di- 
vine Master had died before him : his Master look- 
ed towards Heaven, which by his death he opened 
to men ; wherefore Peter judged, through humility, 
that a sinner, formed from dust, and going to return 
to dust, ought rather in confusion to look on the 
earth, as unworthy to raise his eyes to Heaven. St. 
Paul underwent more labours, and suffered more fre- 
quent imprisonments, and more stripes, than any of 
the rest: he had been five times publicly whipped 
by the Jews, receiving each time thirty -nine stripes; 
he had been thrice beaten with rods by the Gentiles; 
had thrice suffered shipwreck ; and had been a day 
and a night in the depth ef the sea, that is, in a ves- 
sel which was so long shattered and tossed amidst 
the waves; at length the happy term of his labours 
and sufferings being arrived, he beheld with joy the 
moment of his dissolution, in which Christ called 
him to his glory, and with the most perfect resigna- 
tion, submitting himself to the executioner, he was 
beheaded, his dignity of a Roman citizen not ailow- 
ine him to be crucified. St. Gregory writes, that the 
F 



62 HISTORY OF THE 

bodies of these two Apostles were buried in the 
Catacombs, two miles from Rome, where now stands 
the Church of St. Sebastian, near the Salvian Waters. 
At present the heads of the two Apostles are depo- 
sited in silver bustos in the Church of St. John La- 
teran ; but one half of the body of each Apostle is 
3vept together in the great Church of St. Paul, on 
the Ostian Road, and the other half of both bodies in 
a stately vault, in the Vatican church, which sacred 
place is called The Confession of St. Peter a?id 
Limina Afiostvloruin, and is resorted to from all parts 
of Christendom. 

About the same year that St. Peter and St. Paul 
were martyred, the civil wars began in Judea, by 
the seditions of the Jews against the Romans. The 
Christians then residing in Jerusalem were warned 
by Almighty God of the impending destruction, 
says Eusebius, and ordered to withdraw from that 
city, as Lot was ordered to withdraw from Sodom. 
Accordingly they retired beyond the river Jordan, 
with their bishop, St. Simeon, successor of St. James, 
and remained in a city called Pella, until after the 
taking and burning of Jerusalem, when they return- 
ed to settle themselves in the midst of its ruins. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The desr >f Jerusalem, mid the disjiersion of 

the Jewish Nation. 

IT was expedient that the City of Jerusalem, and 
the temporal Republic of the Jews, should sub- 
sist some time after the promulgation of the Gospel, 
until the spiritual kingdom of Christ and the new 
Curch of the Gentiles would be formed and grafted 
on the ancient stock and root of the Synagogife of 
the true Israelites, as the branches of the wild olive 
are grafted upon the fruitful olive. Rom. 11. 17. 
The time at length arrived when Jerusalem and its 
beautiful Temple were to be demolished, and the 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 6 J 

people of that stubborn and ungrateful nation was to 
be involved in the most dreadful calamities, and dis- 
persed all over the earth. By an unparalleled in- 
stance of impiety they had crucified the Son of God* 
and uttered this horrible blasphemy, His blood be 
upon us and upon our Children, St. Mat. 27. 25. 
The just vengeance of Heaven fell therefore upon 
their commonwealth, and a whole torrent of divine 
wrath was poured down upon their criminal heads^ 
and also upon their children, in less than forty years 
after. The Roman armies under Vespasian and Ti- 
tus invaded their territories, and ravaged their coun- 
try. Jerusalem was besieged, taken, and razed to 
the ground. The Temple was set on fire by a Ro- 
man soldier, and consumed, notwithstanding all the 
efforts made by Titus to extinguish the flames. 
Previous to this sad disaster many strange phenome- 
na had been seen, according to the Jewish Talmud : 
insomuch, that a famous Rabbin cried out one day, 
O Temple I Temple I what is it that moves thee, and 
wherefore dost thou make thyself a/raid ? What is 
more noted than that dreadful noise that was heard 
in the Sanctuary on the day of Pentecost, and that 
audible voice which issued forth from the innermost 
part of that sacred place : Let us go hence — Let us 
go hence .' The Holy Angels, Guardians of the Tem- 
ple, loudly declaring, that they were forsaking it be- 
cause God, who had there established his dwelling; 
during so many ages, had now given it up to repro- 
bation. Josephus, their historian, and Tacitus him- 
self, have both related this prodigy. Josephus also 
makes rneution of a prophet who constantly ran 
through the public streeis, crying out with a loud 
voice, Wo to the City — Wo to- the Temple — Wq 
to the Jews. Eleven hundred thousand of them pe- 
rished on this occasion, partly by famine, partly by the 
plague, and partly by the sword. About fifty years 
after the destruction of Jerusalem they revolted 
through the whole Roman Empire, under the con- 
duct of Barchokebas, who boasted that he was the 
promised Messiah, and called himself the Star of 
Jacob, foretold in the Book of Numbers. On this 



64 HISTORY OF THE 

occasion six hundred thousand of the Jews are said 
to have been killed, and the remainder of that un- 
happy people who survived, were expelled Judea, 
scattered over the face of the earth, and became 
the contempt of mankind, and a lasting monument of 
God's indignation. In this condition they have now 
remained upwards of seventeen hundred years, with- 
out any fixed abode or government, still in expecta- 
tion of the Messiah, though it is evident that the 
scepter has been removed from the tribe of Juda, 
the seventy weeks of years predicted by Daniel 
have been accomplished, and the time and other cir- 
cumstances foretold by the prophets for the coming 
of the Messiah, is long since elapsed. They still 
persevere in the blindness and obstinacy of theitf 
forefathers, amidst the noon-day light of the Gospe). 
However, their obstinacy affords Christians the ad- 
vantage of finding in unsuspected hands the sacred 
Scriptures, which have foretold Jesus Christ and his 
mysteries. Thus we are gainers by their overthrow, 
and their infidelity is one of the foundations of our 
faith. They teach us to fear God, and are a dreadful 
example of the judgments he executes upon his un- 
grateful children, that we may learn never to glory- 
in the favours shown to our forefathers. Sixtus Se- 
nensis, who had been a Jew before his conversion, 
informs us, that the Jews of his days had improved 
so much upon the false delicacy of the Jews in 
Christ's time, that they scrupled to take an ox out 
ol a pit on the Sabbath, and would only allow food 
to be given the beast in the water, till the festival 
was over, when they took him out. Nay, he relates, 
that a Jew, who was fallen into a ditch on the Sab- 
Ijath, refused to suffer a Christian, who offered his 
help, to lift him out of the mire, saying, 

Sabbata nostra colo ; 

De stercore surgere nolo. 
The Jewish Sabbath doth of me require, 
That I should rest contented in this mire. 

Wherefore, when he implored the same Christian's 
'•ssistance on the ensuing clay, which was Sunday, 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. &5' 

the latter, to turn the Jew's superstitious scrupulo- 
sity against himself, answered, that he should keep 
the Christian Sabbath in the same place : 

Sabbata nostra quidem r 

Salomon^ celebrabis ibidem. 
Christians on this day their Sabbath keep, ; 
I'll leave you then y dear Jew, there still to creefil 

Some of their Rabbins have even gone so far as 
to contend, that a tailor would be guilty of break- 
ing the Sabbath who should carry a needle stuck in 
his sleeve on that day. 

The calamities and oppressions the Jews have 
undergone, would probably have extinguished any- 
other people, but ihey are still preserved by a spe- 
cial Providence for a future great purpose ; for when 
the merciful dispensations of Heaven to the Gentiles 
shall be completed, when the Gospel shall have been 
fully preached to mankind, and the number of con- 
verts to Christianity, designed by the Almighty^ 
shall be filled up. the last posterity of the Jews shall 
experience that bounty which has been suspended 
for so many ages. By a particular mark of predi- 
lection, they had been chosen in former ages by God 
as his peculiar people, and adopted preferably to any 
other nation. They shared his favours in great 
abundance, and in the most conspicuous manner ; 
and though in their infidelities and gross deviations 
from their duty, he used the rod of correction, yet 
he always retained the disposition of a merciful fa- 
ther for them, and was so far from utterly extermi- 
nating them, that their race subsists to this day, and 
is still very numerous. Before the end of the world, 
says St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Satan will raise up a 
man^who will falsely assume the name of Christ, and 
endeavour to seduce them ; he will allege the sacred 
Scriptures to prove that he is their Messiah, and the 
Christ, says St. Ambrose ; but the Lord will then 
send the Prophets Eiias and Henoch to oppose his 
efforts, and to undeceive and convince them that 
their Messiah is that very Jesus, whom they have 
F % 



66 HISTORY OF THE 

rejected. He will then in his mercy take from them 
the heart of stone, and give them a heart of flesh ; 
he will make them sensible of their past blindness 
and obstinacy ; he will, in fi.»e, open their eyes to 
acknowledge Christ their Messiah and Saviour, and 
by n aking ihem Christians, he will incorporate them 
in the pale and bosom of his Church.< — Rom. 11. 
25, 2b, z7 It is thus that the Jews shall be at length 
converted to Christianity, and the remnant of Israel 
shall be saved by believing in Jesus Christ. Nor 
can any man ever be saved, without a supernatural 
faith in tins Divine Redeemer : There is no other 
name under Heaven given to man whereby he must 
be saved. — Acts 4. 12. The saints, in the old law, 
were saved by the same faith which we more expli- 
citly confess. They believed in Christ to come : we 
believe in him already come. The words are 
changed, Our Redeemer will come, and. He is come, 
as St. Augustine frequently observes, but the object 
4>f this faith is the same. 

Our blessed Saviour foresaw, and clearly predict- 
ed the destruction of Jerusalem, and of its Temple, 
and the dispersion of the Jews, Luke 21 ; and as it 
could not possibly have been foreseen but by the eye 
of Divine Providence alone, it served as an evident 
proof of Revelation, that bore testimony to the 
truth of the Christian Religion, and persuaded 
threat multitudes, both of Jews and Gentiles, to em- 
brace it. Wherefore Satan, who for many ages 
had usurped almost an universal empire in the world, 
being deeply stung with envy to see his own throne 
•shaken by the progress of the Gospel, and the 
Christian Religion flourishing more and more every 
day, resolved to stir up the potentates of the earth, 
to give it the most violent opposition, and to do all 
that men could do to extirpate the very name of 
Christianity, 



CHURCH OF CHRIST, 6£ 

CHAPTER IX. 

The three first general Persecutions. 

THE Christians had already been cruelly perse- 
cuted, both by the Jews and by the Gentiles, but 
these persecutions were not general. The mo- 
narchy of Rome being at that time exceedingly 
powerful and extensive, Satan chiefly attempted to 
instil the poison of his malice into the minds of the 
Pagan Emperors, and to inspire them, and the go- 
vernors of the Roman provinces, against all the 
Christians in general. To open the scene and be- 
gin the bloody tragedy, he made use of the emperor 
Nero, doubtless a very proper instrument for the 
work, as being already a monster of vice and cruel- 
ty, that glutted his savage mind with the slaughter 
of his own mother Agrippina, his brother Britanni- 
cus, his two wives Octavia and Poppaea, and his pre- 
ceptors Seneca and Burrhus. The first five years 
of his reign he ruled with so much clemency, that 
when he was to sign an order for the death of a con- 
demned person, he said, "1 wish 1 could not write." 
But when he began to feel the dangerous pleasure 
of being master of his own person and actions, he 
plunged himself into the most infamous debauche- 
ries. He forgot all common rules of decency, or- 
der, or justice. It was his greatest ambition to sing, 
or perform the part of an actor on the stage, to play 
on musical instruments in the theatre, to fish with 
nets of gold, or to drive a chariot in the circus. 
He made a tour through the principal cities of 
Greece, attended by a great number of singers, 
pantomimes, and musicians, carrying, instead of 
arms, instruments of music, masks, and theatrical 
dresses. He gained there eighteen hundred various 
sorts of crowns, at the Olympian games and public 
diversions. Whosoever did not applaud ail his per- 
formances, or had not the compliance to let him 
oarry the prize, at every race, or public entertain- 
ment, his throat was sure to be cut, or he was re- 



68 HISTORY OF THfc- 

served for some more cruel death. It w%s in the 
year 64 that this brutal prince first drew the sword 
of sovereign power against the Church, and re- 
turned from Greece to make the streets of Rome 
stream with blood. Envying the fate of Priam? 
who saw his country laid in ashes, Nero is charged 
with having privately ordered the city of Rome to 
be set on fire, and with having caused lighted torches 
to be thrown among the houses, that he might glut 
his eyes with an image of the burning of the city of 
Troy. During this horrid tragedy he was seated 
on the top of a tower upon a neighbouring hill, in 
the theatrical dress of a musician, singing a poem 
which he had composed on the burning of Troy. 
Finding himself detested by the people, who imput- 
ed the burning of Rome to him, he endeavoured to 
exculpate himself, and to transfer the odium upon 
tlv incendiaries. Hence he published a severe edict 
against a J the professors of Christianity, and order- 
ed vast multitudes of them to be sacrificed, not only 
in Rome, but likewise in all the different provinces 
of the Roman empire. At Rome some were wrapt 
up in the skins of wild beasts, and thus exposed to 
be worried by dogs ; others were crucified ; others 
burnt alive, being clad in coats dipt in pitch, brim- 
stone, or some other combustible matter, and then 
fastened to stakes, and set on fire, that they might 
serve, instead of torches, to illuminate the streets 
and other public places. — See Tacitus, 1. 15, c. 44. 
Nero himself is said to have driven his chariot, and 
exhibited a public show in his gardens by the light 
of these horrid torches. Historians relate, that no 
less than leo '.housand Christians were slain in one 
siiigle ciiy by his orders. What could engage such 
multitudes i the Christian Religion) and support 
them in it, in defiance ot death in the most shocking 
forms, but evident truth, and a superior grace and 
Strength from above ? It is the prerogative of the 
Christian Religion to inspire men with such reso«- 
lution, and form them to such heroism, that they rc- 
joic< to sacrifice their life to truth. This is not the 
bare force and exertion of nature, but the undoubt- 



CHURCft OF CHB.IST. 69*" 

ed power of the Almighty, whose strength is thus 
made perfect in weakness. No other religion ever 
produced martyrs so meek, so humble, so patient, 
so cheerful and steadfast, under the most intolerable 
torments. If we contrast the pretended heroism of 
the greatest sages of Paganism, with the fortitude 
and constancy of the Christian martyrs, we shall 
find that the constancy of the Christian is founded 
in humility, and its motive the pure love of God,, 
and perfect fidelity to his holy law. He suffers with 
modesty, charity, and tender fortitude, and with a 
puf e intention that God may be known, honoured, 
and glorified by the testimony he bears to his sove- 
reign goodness. He desires no acclamations, seeks 
no applause, feels no sentiments of revenge, praises 
and thanks God amidst his torments, and affection- 
ately embraces, loves, and prays for his enemies and 
tormentors like St. Stephen, under a shower of 
stones, and covered with wounds and blood. On the 
other hand, the vain and proud philosopher is puffed 
up in his own mind, because he suffers ; he sets 
forth his pretended virtue with ostentation ; he con- 
ceals his inward spite, rage, and despair, under the 
hypocritical exterior of a forced and affected pa- 
tience ; he insults his enemies, or at least studies 
and wishes revenge. The boasted Cato dreaded and 
abhorred the sight of Caesar, and killed himself, that 
he might not be presented before, or owe his life to 
an e nemy, by whom he was vanquished. Socrates was 
the only philosopher that can be said to have died 
for his doctrine, and though he was esteemed the 
best and the wisest of the Heathens, he betrayed a 
restless posture of mind, and delivered himself with 
fits of hope and fear, in that most famous discourse 
which he is supposed to have made a little before his 
death about a future state. By the haughtiness of 
his looks he despised and insulted his judges, and 
by the insoience of his behaviour he provoked them 
to condemn him ; and neither Phaedo, Cebes, Crito, 
Simmias, nor any of his greatest triends in the Are- 
opagus, had the courage to maintain eitherlus inno- 
cence, or that doctrine for which he died. With 



70 HISTORY OF ?HE 

what reserve did Plato himself dogmatize, concern* 
ing the God whom he worshipped in public, but de- 
nied in private ! How did he dissemble, for fear of 
the hemlock of Seneca ! How did he disguise him- 
self, and say and unsay the same excellent truths \ 
Only ihe Christians suffered with true heroism, and 
held on suffering at this rate, until they subdued the 
world by dying for their religion. 

The disturbances under the emperors Galba, 
Otho, and Vitellius, who in their turn succeeded 
Nero, and the humane dispositions of Vespasian 
and his son Titus, gave some respite to the Church. 
Vespasian, emulous of the virtues of Augustus, 
reigned with such clemency, as to be grieved at the 
infliction of punishment, even when it was right. 
Josephus, the Jewish Historian, flattered him, as if 
he had been the Messiah foretold by the prophets. 
But Vespasian was not free from avarice, for he laid 
a tax upon urine, and was accustomed to say, that 
gain made every thing smell sweet. Titus, on ac- 
count of his singular humanity, was called the de- 
light of mankind ; and if he passed a day without 
exercising his benevolence, he used this memorable 
saying : k * My friends, 1 have lost a day 1" He is 
supposed to have been poisoned by his brother, Do- 
mitian, who succeeded him in the empire, but not 
in his humanity, or other good qualities, for Domi- 
tian became a second Nero in cruelty. This is the 
Emperor who, in the beginning of his reign, enter- 
tained himself in his closet with catching flies, and 
sticking them with a sharp bodkin. Hence Vibius 
Crispus, being asked who was with the Emperor ? 
aptly replied, JVot so much as ajly. 

Domitian, instigated by Satan, began the second 
general persecution in the year 95, and published 
new edicts throughout the empire against the Chris- 
tians, by virtue of which great numbers were made 
victims of religion. Among others, he put to death 
Flavius Clemens, Antipas, St. Nereus, and Achileus, 
and ordered St. John the Evangelist to be ca*t into 
a caldron of boiling oil. 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. $1 

The third general persecution was carried on by 
the permission of Trajan. This Emperor, indeed, 
possessed many amiable qualities, which gained him 
from the Senate the title of Ofirijnus, or Good 
Prince ; but he sullied his Pagan virtues by a blind 
superstition, and an excessive vanity, which pro- 
cured him the surname of Parietinus y or a dauber of 
every wall with the inscription of his name and ac- 
tions. In seven years he built the famous pillar 
which is called by his name, and justly esteemed a 
finished and most admirable monument of antiquity. 
It is recorded of him, that when, according to the 
usual custom, he delivered the sword of office to the 
chief prsetor of Rome, he said, "if I rule with jus- 
" tice, use this for me — and against me, if J rule 
" otherwise." He issued no new edicts against the 
faithful, but he suffered the former sanguinary laws 
to be executed in different parts of the empire, in 
the year 106, as appears from his answer to Pliny 
the Younger, governor of Pontus and Bvthinia, who 
had informed him by letter, That the Christians were 
very numerous in the provinces of his government, 
that the temples of the Gods were abandoned, their 
feasts were interrupted, and scarce any victims were 
purchased or offered, and, therefore, that he wished 
to know his pleasure what should be done. Trajan's 
answer was : " Let the Christians not be sought for ; 
" but if they be accused and convicted as such, let 
"them be punished." Tertullian justly confutes 
this absurd and unjust answer, by a keen raillery, 
and the following dilemma: " If they are criminal, 
" why are they not sought after ? if innocent, why are 
" they punished ?" It was in the reign of this Em- 
peror that St. Clement, Bishop of Rome, and disci- 
pie of St. Peter, was put to death. St. Simeon, Bi- 
shop of Jerusalem, and brother and successor of St. 
James the Lesser, suffered also a glorious martyr- 
dom under Trajan, at the age of 120 years ; and St. 
Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, was sent by him to 
Rome, there to be torn to pieces by wild beasts in 
the amphitheatre. St Ignatius wrote seven epis- 
tles, still extant, which> contain a sublimity, an ener- 



73 MISTORY ©F tki: 

gy and beauty of thought and expression that can- 
not be sufficiently admired. The perfect spirit of 
humility, meekness, patience, zeal, and burning cha- 
rity, which they breathe in every period, cannot fail 
deeply to affect all who attentively read them. The 
acts of his martyrdom, written by the Christians, 
who accompanied him to Ronre, bear record, that a 
great respect was paid to his sacred relics, and that 
they were carried to Antioch, and deposited in that 
church as an inestimable treasure. 

Trajan's persecution, in some degree, continued 
the first year of his successsor, <&lius Adrianus* 
reign, but he put a stop to it about the year 124, 
moved, probably, both by the apologies of Quadratus 
and Aristides, and by a letter which the proconsul 
of Asia had written to him in favour of the Chris- 
tians. This emperor came into Britain, and sepa- 
rated Scotland from England by a wall of 80,000 
paces. So monstrous was his vanity, that he caused 
all to be slain who pretended, in any art or science, 
to rival him. He reduced the tumultuous Jews, 
who revolted against the Romans, being led on by 
the advice of Coziba, called Barchokebas, from Bur- 
chokeba. Son of the SVar, who assumed the title of 
the King of the Jews. Adrian having defeated him, 
destroyed Jerusalem entirely, in the year 134, and 
built up a new city on a different spot, giving it the 
name of jElia, and strictly forbidding any of the 
Jews to come near it. Here was formed a new 
church of Jerusalem, composed of Christian Gen- 
tiles, of which St Marcus was the first Bishop, the 
former Church of Jerusalem having had thirteen 
holy Bishops, successively* after St. Simeon, all of 
the Jewish nation.— -Sec Eusebius, 1. 4. c. 6. St. 
Paulinus informs us, that Adrian caused a statue of 
Jupiter to be erected on the place where Christ rose 
from the dead, and a marble Venus on the place 
of his crucifixion, and at Bethlehem a grotto, con- 
secrated in honour of Adonis, to whom he also dedi- 
cated the cave where Christ was born. This em- 
peror, towards the end of his reign, abandoned him- 
self more thru^ ever, to acts of cruelty against the in- 



CHURCH ©P CHRIST* <o 

nocent flock of Christ ; particularly against St. Sym- 
phorosa, a widow of distinction, and her seven sons, 
whom he put to death because they had refused to 
offer sacrifice to his idols. At last he fell sick of a 
dropsy, and finding no medicines gave him relief, he 
grew most impatient and fretful under his lingering 
illness, wishing for death, and lamenting day and 
night that death refused to obey and deliver him, who 
had caused the death of so many others. He at 
length hastened his death, by eating and drinking 
things contrary to his health in his distemper, and ex- 
pired with these words in his mouth : Turd a medi- 
corum Ctsarem fierdidit—~The multitude of physi- 
cians hath killed the Emperor. 



CHAPTER X. 

The Church of the Second Century. 

THE Christian Religion, by the beginning of the 
second century, had prodigiously increased, and 
spread itself through a great extent in Europe, Asia, 
and Africa. St. Justin, in his dialogue with Try- 
pho, the most learned man among the Jews, tells 
him, u that there is no race of men, whether Greeks 
" or Barbarians, or of whatever other denomination, 
" amongst whom prayers and eucharisi are not , f- 
" fered to the Father and Maker of all things, ifl he 
" name of Jesus crucified." St. Irenseus, wno, with 
St. Pothinus, established the faith at Lyons and Vi- 
enne in Gaul, says, 1. i.e. 3, " As the sun is one 
^ and the same in the whole universe, so also the 
" faith, disseminated through the whole world, is 
" kept with great care one and the same : for, though 
" in the world there is a variety of languages, yet the 
" virtue of tradition is the same in Germany, Spain, 
" Gaul, Egypt, and Lybia. The light of the preach- 
" ing of the truth every where shines and enlightens 
"all Tien who are willing to come to the knowldge 
« of the truth/' Tertullian also soon after, tells the 
G 



74 HISTORY OF THE 

Romans, Apologet. c. 37, p 39, "We are but of 
u yesterday, and we have overspread your empire. 
" Your cities, your islands, your forts, towns, and 
" assemblies, — your very armies, wards, companies, 
"tribes, palaces, senate, and forum, swarm w r ith 
" Christians. We have left nothing but your tem- 
" pies to your selves." In his book against the 
Jews, c. 7, p. 189, he likewise says, " Now the vari- 
" ous tribes of the Getulians and Moors, in all parts 
"of Spain and Gaul, and amongst the Sarmatians, 
" Daci, Germans, and Scythians, and the territories 
" of the Britons, which were inaccessible to the Ro- 
" mans, are subject to the religion of Jesus Christ." 
He also wonderfully extols the Christians of those 
times, for the purity of their morals, and the sanctity 
of their lives ; and, challenging the Infidels to the 
trial, he bids them spill on the spot the blood of that 
Christian whose prayer, in the name of Jesus, should 
fail to cast the devil out of a demoniac presented to 
him. — Apolog. c. 23. 

St. Linus, a disciple of St Peter, was his imme- 
diate successor in the see of Rome after his martyr- 
dom, and governed the Church for eleven years. 
St. Cletus was the third Bishop of Rome, and suc- 
ceeded St. Linus : he sat twelve years in the chair 
of St. Peter, and distinguished himself among the 
illustrious disciples of the Apostles, who were form- 
ed upon their model, to perfect virtue, and filled 
with the holy spirit of the Gospel. Upon the de- 
mise of St. Cletus, St. Clement, a fellow-labourer 
with St. Peter and St. Paul in the vineyard of the 
Lord, was placed in the apostolic chair, and, ac- 
cording to the Liberian Calendar, he sat nine years, 
eleven months, and twenty days He wrote an ex- 
cellent epistle to the Church of Corinth, on account 
of a schism that happened there amongst the faith- 
ful, a party of whom had rebelled against some ir- 
reproachable priests, and presumed to depose them. 
The tpistie the Saint wrote on this occasion is a 
piece highly extolled, and esteemed by primitive 
antiquity, as worthy of a disciple of the Apostles. 
In his days Hcrmas, who is supposed to be the same 



CHURCH OF CHRIST* M 

whom St. Paul salutes, Rom. 16. )4, wrote a book 
in recommendation of penance, called Pastor, or the 
Shepherd, which was so highly esteemed, that it was 
placed in rank next to the canonical books of the 
Holy Scriptures. St. Linus, St. Cletus, and St. 
Clement, are named in the Roman Martyrology, as 
having purchased the title of martyrs, by their 
sufferings for the faith. Nay, the thirty-six first: 
Bishops of Rome, down to Liberies, and, this one 
excepted, all the Popes, to Symmachus, the fifty- 
second, in the year 498, are honoured among the. 
Saints and glorious Martyrs, for their piety, and for 
their Bufferings in the cause of Jesus Christ. 

After St. Clement, there sat in the chair of St, 
Peter, Anacletus, Evaristus, Alexander, Sixtus, 
Telesphorus, Sec. The first fervour of the primi- 
tive Christians was preserved in this century by 
thousands of the faithful in different pans of the 
world; the succession of Saints was kept up in the 
Church of Christ, and the doctrine of faith was 
invariably maintained in its purity, as originally 
derived from Christ and his Apostles, by numbers 
of holy bishops and doctors ; for, whilst the holy 
martyrs were bearing' testimony to the faith by the 
effusion cf their blood, Divine Providence raised 
up a multitude of holy prelates and illustrious 
writers, to guard it against the snares of heresy, 
and to defend it by their learned apologies. The 
spirit of fervour and perfect sanctity, which is now- 
adays so rarely found in the very sanctuaries of 
virtue, was then conspicuous in most of the faithful, 
and especially in their pastors. The whole tenour 
of their lives, both in retirement and in their public 
.is, breathed it in such a manner, as to render 
them the miracles cf the world, angels on earth, 
and living copies of their Divine Redeemer. Ana- 
cletus governed the Church with great prudence for 
nine years and three months, according to the Libe- 
rian Pontifical, and a very old Vatican manuscript 
register. Evaristus governed the Church nine years, 
and died in the year 112. Alexander died in 1 19. 
Sixtus governed the Church ten years, at a time 



76 HISTORY OF THE 

when that dignity was the common step to martyr- 
dom. Telesphoi us was a Grecian by birth, and the 
ninth Bishop of Rome : he sat eleven years, and saw 
the havock which the persecution of Adrian made 
in the Church. Hyginus was placed in the chair 
of St Peter in the year 139, and sat four years, 
according to husebius. In the year 140 Cerdo, a 
wolf in sheep's clothing, came from Syria to Rome, 
and began to teach that there were two gods, the 
one rigorous and severe, the author of the Old 
Testament — the other merciful and good, the author 
of the New, and the father of Christ, sent by him 
o redeem man from the tyranny of the former. 
TU* holy Pope, by his pastoral vigilance, soon 
detected that monster, and cut him off from the 
communion of the Church. The heresiarch, im- 
posing upon him by a false repentance, was again 
•eceived ; but the zealous pastor, having discovered 
that he secretly preached his old impious opinions, 
excommunicated him a second time. Another he- 
resiarch, called Valentine, came from Alexandria 
to Rome, and revived the errors of Simon Magus. 
Hcktg a Platonic Philososher, and puffed up with 
vain opinion of his learning, he also broached 
many absurd and extravagant doctrines of his own. 
Hyginus endeavoured in vain to reclaim him, with- 
out proceeding to extremities. After his death, 
k J ius, by whom he was succeeded, condemned Va- 
lentine, and rejected Marcian the heresiarch, who 
adop ed the errors of Cerdo. Amcetus governed 
Church from the year 165 to 173, and tolerated 
custom, of the Asiatics, in celebrating Easter on 
fourteenth day of the first moon after the vernal 
. -quinox, with the Jews. His vigilance protected 
■.i \ flock from the wiles of Valentine and Marcian, 
vvho attempted to corrupt the faith. Soter, being 
raised to the see of Rome, vigorously opposed the 
heresy of Montanus, a vain, ambitious man, of 
Maesia, on the confines of Phrygia, who, out of an 
unbounded desire of invading the first dignities of 
the Church, and filled with rage to see himself dis- 
| pointed, commenced false prophet, and began to 



CHURCH OF CHRIS?. H*? 

preach against the Church, denying that it had 
power to forgive certain sins. He pretended that 
the holy Ghost spoke by his mouth ; uttered extra- 
ordinary expressions in an enthusiastic strain^ and 
published forged revelations. His followers after- 
wards advanced that he was himself the Holy Ghost? 
the Paraclete Spirit, sent by Christ to perfect the 
law. They affected an excessive rigour ; had many 
fasts ; kept three lents in the year ; refused the com- 
munion and absolution to persons who had fallen in- 
to any sin of idolatry, murder, and of impurity ; con- 
demned second marriages as adulteries, and as in- 
consistent with the perfect law of chastity. The 
Montanists were also called, from their country,- 
Cataphryges, and Pepuzeni, from Pepuzium, a little 
town, which was their capital, and which they called 
Jerusalem. Priscilia and Maximilla, two women of 
quality, left their husbands, and being filled with the 
same spirit, spoke like Montanus, vaunted their pre- 
tended prophecies, and became the oracles of their 
deluded votaries. But their hypocrisy was con- 
founded, and their errors refuted and condemned, in 
a great conference held at Ancyra, in the year 188. 
Some, who had braved the racks of the persecutors, 
and despised the allurements of pleasure, had the 
misfortune to become the dupes of these wretched 
enthusiasts. About the same time Tatian fell from 
the Church. He was a Platonic Philosopher, puffed 
up with the opinion of his own knowledge and learn- 
ing, and fond of novelty and singularity. He borrow- 
ed several of his errors from Marcian, Valentinus, 
and Saturninus, and condemned second marriage as 
no less criminal than adultery. Hence his followers 
were called Encratit<e y or the continent. They were 
likewise called Aquarii^ because, in consecrating the 
Eucharist, they used only water, for they condemn^ 
ed all use of wine, and likewise the use of flesh meat, 
as St. Epiphanius, St. Ircnaeus, andSt. Clement of 
Alexandria, inform us. Thus it is, that false pro- 
phets wear every face except that of a sincere and 
docije humility and obedience. Pharisee iike r thejr 
please themselves, . and gratify their own pride, i&§ 
G 2 



78 HISTORY OF TtfE 

an affected austeri.y, by which they seek to establish 
themselves in the opinion of others, but their severity 
usually ends in some shameful libertinism, when 
vanity, the main spring of their passions, is either 
cloyed, or finds nothing to gratify it. 

Eleutherius, who succeeded Soter, was watchful 
to cut off these scandals in their root, and every 
where to maintain the faith in its original purity.— 
He had the affliction to see the Church beaten with 
violent storms and persecutions, but he had, on the 
other side, the comfort to find the losses richly re- 
paired, by the acquisition of new countries to the 
Christian R* ligion. The Light of the Gospel had, 
in the very times of the Apostles, crossed the sea 
into the island of Great Britain, but seems to have 
been almost choaked by the tares of the reigning 
superstitions, or oppressed by the tumults of wars, 

:i the reduction of that island under the Roman 
yoke, till God, who chose poor fishermen to convert 
the world, inspired Lucius, a petty king, who held 
a part of that remote conquered country, in subjec- 
tion to the Romans, to send a solemn embassy to 
Rome, as venerable Bede informs us, praying Eleu- 
iherius to grant him some zealous clergymen, who 
might instruct his subjects and celebrate and ad- 
minister to them the divine mysteries. The holy 
Pope, having received the message with joy, sent 
over St. Fugatius and St. Dumianus, apostolical 
:mcn, who baptized King Lucius and many others, 
; nd preached Christ in Britain with such fruit, that 

;ic faith, in a short time, passed out of the provinces 
which obeyed the Romans, into those Northern parts 
which were inaccessible to their eagles, as Tertul • 
iian observed soon after. 

Eleutherius dying in the year 192, after having 
governed the Church fifteen years, was succeeded 
in the pontificate by Victor, a native of Africa, 
who zealously opposed the creeping heresies of that 
age. Theodotus of Byzantium, a tanner, having 
apostatized from the faith to save his life in a perse- 
cution, afterwards, to extenuate ins guilt, pretend- 
that he had denied only a man> not God, teach* 



CHURCH OF CHRIST, 79 

ing that Christ was nothing more than a mere man* 
as the Socinians teach at this day; whereas, the 
Arians allowed him to have been before the world, 
though they impiously asserted him to be a creature. 
Theodotus, being well versed in polite literature, 
drew many into his blasphemous errors, but Victor 
checked his progress at Rome, by excommunicating 
him, with Ebion, Artemon, and another Theodo- 
tus, called 1 rapezita, or the Banker, who taught 
the same blasphemy, and was author of the Mel- 
chisedechian Heresy, which asserted that Melchi- 
sedec was greater than Christ. Praxeas, also be* 
gan to sow a new heresy at Rome about this time, 
maintaining but one person in God, and attributing 
crucifixion to the Father as well as to the Son, for 
which reason his followers were called Patripassians. 
His errors being brought to light, he was cut off 
from the communion of the Church. It was this 
same Praxeas who, before that, had brought Pope 
Victor an ample account from the East of the tenets 
and practice of the Montanists, who had deceived 
Victor, and prevailed on him, by the favourable 
report he had heard of their morals and virtue, to 
send them letters of communion. It was easy to b& 
deceived in a matter of fact concerning persons at 
such a distance, and who, for a long time, disguis- 
ed themselves under the garb of hypocrisy ; but he 
no sooner answered their letters, and was unde- 
ceived as to their persons, and their facts and tenets, 
than he immediately recalled his letters of peace, 
and condemned these innovators. So that Dr. Cave, 
and some others, who think that the Pope approved 
of their doctrine, are greatly mistaken. 

Victor exerted his zeal in the dispute about the 
time of celebrating Easter. The Churches of Less- 
er Asia kept it, with the Jews, on ths 14th day of 
the first moon after the Vernal Equinox, on what- 
ever day of the week it fell. The Roman Church, 
and all the rest of the world, kept Easter always 
on the Sunday immediately following that 14th day. 
Anicetus permitted the Asiatics, even at Rome, to 
follow their own custom, but Soter obliged them to 



SO ihSTORY OF THE 

conform to the customs of the places where they 
should be. Several councils unanimously deter- 
mined the point according to the Roman custom. 
Blastus, who pretended that the custom tolerated in 
the Orientals was a divine precept, and ought to be 
followed at Rome, was degraded by Eleutherius. 
Those who did this upon the false principle that 
the Jewish ceremonial laws bound Christians, and 
were not abolished when fulfilled by the coming of 
Christ, were deemed heretics. Others, on account 
of their separation from the Church, and obstinately 
refusing submission to its decrees and censures, were, 
after the Council of Nice, looked upon as schisma- 
tics, and were called Quartodccimans. Victor, seeing 
the Asiatics fixed in their resoiu ion to follow their 
own custom, and thinking the difference of this rite 
might be dangerous to the unity of the Church, 
threatened to excommunicate them, but was dissuad- 
ed by a letter which St. Ircnaeus wrote to him on the 
subject. Victor died in the year 201, after he had 
sat ten years. What veneration must the morality 
of the Gospel command, when set off with all its 
lustre in the lives and spirit of such zealous pastors, 
since the bare precepts and maxims it lays down are 
allowed, by Deists and Infidels themselves, to claim 
the highest respect, and to be most admirable and 
evidently divine ! 

The principal ecclesiastical writers who flourish- 
ed in this a^e, and wrote in vindication of the Chris* 
tian Religion, were, St. Justin ; St. Irenaeus ; St. 
Quadratus ; St. Clement, of Alexandria ; St. Aristi- 
des, of Athens ; St Hegesippus ; St. Melito, Bishop 
of Sardis, in Lydia ; St. Theophilus, Bishop of An- 
tioch ; St. Serapion, the eighth Bishop of the same 
see ; St. Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth ; St. Pinitus ; 
S' Philip, Bishop of Crete ; St. Apolinaris, Bishop 
of Hierapolis ; St. Apollonius ; St Pantanus, master 
of the famous school of Alexandria, and afterwards 
preacher of the Gospel in the East Indies ; Athcna- 
goras ; Tcrtullian, and others ; many of whose choice 
productions arc not come to our hands, except a few 
fragments. Justin was brought up by his lather irx 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 81 

the errors and superstitions of Paganism, and spent 
his youth in reading the Poets, orators, and histo- 
rians. Having gene through the usual course of 
their studies, he applied himself to philosophy in 
quest of truth, an ardent love of which was his pre- 
dominant passion, lie addressed himself, first to 
Stoic, then to Peripatetic, and afterwards to Pytha- 
gorean masters, who boasted much of their wisdom, 
but preferring the school of an academic, he soon 
made a great progress under him, in the Platonic 
philosophy. Upon an inquiry into the credibility of 
the Christian Religion, and seeing the innocence and 
true virtue of its professors, and admiring the cour- 
age and constancy with which they suffered the sharp- 
est tortures, rather than deny their faith, or commit 
the least sin. he embraced Christianity, from a con- 
viction of its superior excellency, and because he 
found it to be the only true philosophy. He came to 
Rome after his conversion, and published some 
works to convince the Heathens of the reasonable- 
ness of his having deserted Paganism. Herein he 
shows the errors and absurdity of Idolatry, and the 
vanity of the Heathen Philosophers, and proves the 
ur.iiy of God from their own testimonies and reasons. 
He demonstrates the imperfection of the Jewish 
worship, and sets forth the purity and sanctity of 
the Christian doctrine He explains clearly the 
Divinity of Christ the Maker of alLt kings , and Son 
of God, and wonderfully extols " the immense good- 
" : ess and love of God for man, in creating him, and 
ic the world for his use, and in sending his only be- 
" gotten Son to teach us his holy mysteries, and when 
" we deserved only chastisement, to pay the full 
" price of our redemption : the Holy one to suffer 
" for sinners — the person offended, for the offenders." 
He defended the Catholic faith against Marxian, and 
against all the heresies of that age, and for two en- 
tire days disputed, in the presence of several wit- 
nesses, with Tryphon, a famous Philosopher, and 
the most celebrated Jew of those times, as Euse- 
bius says. Justin* after he became a Christian, con- 
tinued to wear the pallium, or cloak, which was the 



62 HISTORY OF TllE 

singular badge of a philosopher. Tryphon casually 
meeting him, and seeing trie philosopher's cloak f 
addressed him on the excellency of philosophy. 
Justin answered, that he admired he should not ra- 
ther study Moses and the Prophets, in comparison 
•f whom all the writings of the philosophers are 
empty jargon and foolish dreams. Then he show- 
ed, that, according to the Prophets, the Old Law was 
temporary, and to be abolished by the New ; that 
Christ was God before all ages, distinct from the 
Father, the same that appeared to Abraham, Moses, 
&c. the same that created man, and was himself made 
man, and crucified. Justin afterwards committed this 
dialogue to writing : The Socinians dread the autho- 
rity of it, on account of the clear proofs which it fur- 
jiibhes of the divinity of Christ. But what chiefly 
renders Justin's name so illustrious, were the apolo- 
gies which he addressed to the Emperor and Senate 
of Rome, about the years 150 and 167. The lies and 
calumnies generally spread abroad by the enenv 
and slanderers of the Christian name, served for a 
pretence to justify the persecutions that were raised 
against them. They were every where traduced, as 
a wicked and barbarous set of people, enemies to 
their very species. They were deemed Athei 
and accused of practising the most abominable ev. 
and forming conspiracies against the state ; which 
slanders seem to have been founded on the sec:. 
of their mysteries. They were said in their sac 
..ssemblics to feed on the flesh of a murdered child ; 
to which calumny a false notion of the blessed Mt- 
crament of the Eucharist might give birth. Ccla 
and other Heathens, add, that they adored the cross ; 
which slander seems to have been grounded on the 
respect that was shown to the sign of the Holy Cross 
.ince the earliest years of Christianity. All these 
circumstances stirred up the zeal of St. Justin to 
write and present his apologies, wherein he sets 
forth the sanctity and manners of Christians, and 
shows that they ought not to be condemned barely 
for the name of Christian. He vindicates their faith 
from all the slanders that were forged and unjustly 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 83 

propagated against it. He describes the manner of 
sanctifying the Sunday, by meeting to celebrate the 
divine mysteries, to read the Prophets, hear the ex- 
hortation of him that presides, and make a collec- 
tion of alms to be distributed among the orphans, 
widows, sick, prisoners, and strangers. He describes 
the sacraments of Baptism and the blessed Eucha- 
rist, mentioning the latter also as a sacrifice : u N« 
* one, 55 says he, n. 66. p. 83. M is allowed to partake 
" of this food, but he that believes our doctrines to 
» ; be true, and who has been baptized in the layer of 
M regeneration for remission of sins, and lives up to 
• what Christ has taught ; for we take not these as 
u common bread and common drink, but like as Je- 
;< sus Christ our Saviour, being incarnate by the 
" word of God, had both flesh and blood for our sal- 
u vation, so are we taught that this food, by which 
a our flesh and blood are nourished, over which 
" thanks have been given by the prayers in his own 
M words, is the flesh and blood of the incarnate Je- 
" sus." He shows, in fine, that the Christians fly all 
oaths, love even enemies ; abhor the least impurity ; 
are patient and meek ; readily pay all taxes ; re- 
spectfully obey and honour princes ; share their 
riches with the poor ; have so great an abhorrence 
of the least wilful untruth, that they were ready, ra- 
ther to die, than to save their lives by a lie ; that 
numbers among them who were then sixty years old, 
had served God from their infancy in a state of spot- 
less virginity, without having offended against the 
virtue of chastity, in action, or e^en in thought ; that 
their fidelity to God was inviolable, and their constan- 
cy in observing his law invincible. i; No one," says 
he, " can affright from their duty those who believe 
in Jesus. In all parts of the earth we cease not 
" to confess him, though we lose our heads, be cru- 
u cified, or exposed to wild beasts." This great and 
ancient Father of the Church suffered martyrdom 
about the year 167, in the reign of Marcus Aurelius 
and Lucius Verus. 

St. Irenaeus is called, by Theodoret, he Light of 
the Western Gauls, and, by S Epiph. nius, a most 
Jbarned and eloquent man, endowed with all the gifts 



84 HISTOP.Y OF THE 

of the Holy Ghost. He was a scholar of the great 
St Polycarp, and of Papias, another disciple of the 
Apostles St. Gregory of Tov»rs informs us, that St. 
Polvcarp sent Irenaeus into Gaul, where he was or- 
dained bv St. Pothinus, Bishop of Lyons. After 'he 
death of St. Pothinus, he was chosen second Bishop 
of Lyon^ and by his preaching he, in a short time, 
convene* almost that whole country to the faith. 
He wrote five books against ihe heresies of his days, 
and confuted them by the Holy Scriptures, by the 
Apostles' Creed, and by the unanimity of all church- 
es in the same faith. He testifies, that the Christians, 
by the gift of God, cast out devils, cured the sick> 
raised the dead, and performed miraculous works 
every day. over the whole world in the name of 
Christ Jesus. — 1. 2. c. 57. He describes the super- 
stitions and impostures of the heresiarch Mark, 
<( who, in consecrating chalices filled with water and 
" wine, according to the Christian rite, made the 
" chalices appear filled with a certain red liquor, 
M which he called blood; and who allowed women 
" to consecrate the holy mysteries." In his third 
book he complains " that when the heretics are pres- 
" sed by scripture, they elude it by pretending to fly 
11 to tradition, but that when tradition is urged against 
M them, they abandon it to appeal to the scripture 
u alone, whereas, both scripture and tradition confute 
u them." He observes, " that the Apostles certainly 
u delivered the truth, and all the mysteries of our 
lt faith, to their successors, the pastors ; to these 
u therefore, we ought to have recourse to learn, es- 
u pecially to the greatest Church, the most ancient 
" and known to all, founded at Rome by the two 
" most glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul, which re- 
" tains the tradition that it received from them, and 
" which is derived, through a succession of Bish- 
" ops, down to us." He adds, that " the Valenti- 
nians and Marcianites had nothing but the novelty 
of their doctrine to show ; for the Valentinians 
" were not before Valentin us, no" the Marcianites 
" before Marcian. All these arose much too late, 
< ; their novelty alone suffices to confound them " In 
his fourth book he proves the unity of the Godhead, 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 85 

and teaches, (c. 17, 18.) " that Christ, abolishing the 
" ancient sacrifices, instituted the clean oblation of 
" his body and blood, to be offered every where, as 
" is foretold in Malachy." In the fifth book he 
proves our redemption by Christ, and the resurrec- 
tion of the dead v and mentions the prophetic gifts 
and other miraculous powers then subsisting in the 
Church. A correct edition of the works of this 
primitive father has been published by Dom. Mas- 
suel a Benedictine Maurist, in the year 1710. They 
were published by Erasmus before, and in the year 
1702, by Grabe, but this last editor often makes too 
bold with the text, ; nd turns it to a wrong sense, in 
order to favour his own innovations. St. Irenaeus 
suffered martyrdom in the general massacre of the 
Christians at Lyons, whilst the Pagans were celebrat- 
ing the decennial games, in honour of the Emperor 
Severus, as he passed through that city in his expe- 
dition into Britain. St. Gregory of Tours writes, 
that almost all the Christians of that populous city 
were butchered with Irenaeus, and that the streets 
ran with streams of blood. An ancient epitaph, in 
leonine verses, inscribed on a curious Mosaic pave- 
ment in the great Church at Lyons, says, the num- 
ber of martyrs who died with him amounted to nine- 
teen thousand. 

St. Quadratus, Bishop of Athens, was a disciple 
of the Apostles, inherited their spirit and gifts, aad 
by his miracles and labours exceedingly propagated 
the faith, as Eusebius testifies. He succeeded St* 
Pubiius, the immediate successor of St. Dionysius, 
the Areopagite, and was esteemed by the heathens 
as a greater ornament to their city, than the seat of 
the Muses. He presented to the Emperor Adrian 
an apology for the Christian Religion, some time 
after the martyrdom of St. Pubiius, and it procured 
him such applause, even among the Heathens, that 
it extinguished a violent persecution. 

Clement of Alexandria was a native of Athens* 

well skilled in the Platonic Philosophvvand a scholar 

of Pantaenus, who taught the Catechetical school 

at Alexandria. In his search of truth he discovered 

H 



86 HISTORY OF THE 

the folly of idolatry, and came to the light of faith. 
Pamsenus being sent by the Bishop Demetrius into 
the Indies, in the year 189, Clement succeeded him 
in the great school of the Christian doctrine at 
Alexandria, in which he taught with success, and, 
among other scholars of great eminence, hud Origen 
and St. Alexander, afterwards Bishop of Jerusalem 
and martyr. lie was promoted to the priesthood 
about the year 19 5, and published several books, 
wherein he laid open the absurdity of idolatry, and 
gave an historical account of its mythology. He 
shows in what manner the Christians lived in those 
early ages, and lays down many excellent rules for 
conducting souls to true perfection. Great erudition 
is displayed in all his writings. He died at Alex- 
andria before the end of the reign of Caracalla, 
who was slain by Macrinus, in the year 217. 

St. Hegcsippus, a primitive father near the times 
of the Apostles, wrote an history of the Church, 
in five books, from the passion of Christ down to his 
own time in the year 133, and gave in it illustrious- 
proofs of his faith, showing the apostolical tradition, 
and proving, that no episcopal sec, or particular 
church had fallen into error, but had in all things 
preserved inviolably the truths delivered by Christ, 
as Eusebius informs us, lib. 4. c. 22. 

St. Theophilus was one of the most illustrious bi- 
shops and learned fathers of the second century, 
liis writings are highly valued by Eusebius and St, 
Jerom, for elegance of style, variety of erudition, 
and a discreet and warm spirit of piety and religion. 
His parents, being Gentiles, trained him in idolatry, 
and gave him a liberal education. He was well 
versed in the works of the greatest masters of ancient 
philosophy ; but finding the religion, in which he 
-was reared, to be not only unsatisfactory, but also 
absurd and ridiculous, he had too honest an heart 
to take up with falsehood and impiety, because it was 
fashionable. In his diligent inquiry after truth, he 
fell upon the books of the Prophets and Gospels, and 
was much delighted with the sublime verities which 
fl\ey contain. The doctrine of the resurrection 



CHURCH OF CHRfS'T. &7 

was for some time a great stumbling block to him. 
There was scarcely any article of faith which met 
with so much opposition as this from the Heathen 
Philosophers. So full were their heads of the 
axiom, that from a privation of form to the repos- 
session of it, there can be no return, that they un- 
derstood it, not only of the order of things in the 
ordinary course of nature, but as if it implied a 
contradiction, though certainly in the supernatural 
order of things, it is equally easy to Omnipotence to 
restore our scattered parts, and combine them again 
into the same mass, as it was at first to create them 
out of nothing. Theophilus at length conquered 
this difficulty, by reading the sacred oracles of 
truth, and by frequent reflections upon the .jnany 
shadows of a resurrection which God had impressed 
upon several parts of the creation, in the common 
-course of nature. After his conversion, being 
chosen Bishop of Antioch, and successor to Eros* 
he laboured zealously to promote virtue and true 
religion, and to draw sinners from the wanderings of 
heresy and idolatry into the paths of eternal life. 
Heresies and schisms he compared to dangerous 
yocks, upon which whoever is cast runs the dread- 
ful hazard of losing his immortal soul. " As pi- 
M rates," says he, " by striking on rocks, dash to 
tt pieces their laden vessels, so whoever are drawn 
u aside from the truth shall be miserably over- 
a whelmed in their error." — 1. 2. ad Antolyc. p. 183. 
He tells them, M that it is in vain to make an inquiry 
" after truth, unless they reform their hearts, and 
wt proceed with views perfectly pure ; for the pas- 
u sions raise; clouds, which blind reason. All men 
u have eyes," says he, " yet the sun is veiled from 
" the eyes of some : it, however, ceases not to emit 
y a flood of" day, though those whose eyes are 
" blinded, see not its radiant light. But this de- 
¥ feet is not to be laid to their charge, nor can the 
" sun be complained of on account of their blind - 
tf ness." 

St. Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, flourished un- 
degthe Emperor Marcus Aurelius. This primitive 



«8 HISTORY OF THE 

father says, " that St. Peter and St. Paul, aftek 
" planting the faith at Corinth, went both into Italy, 
u and there sealed their testimony with their blood.** 
Eusebius mentions several of his instructive letters 
to the fakhful. 

St. Apollinaris rendered his name illustrious by a 
noble apology for the Christian Religion, which lie 
addressed to the Emperor Marcus AureJius, about 
the year 175, to remind him of the benefit he had 
received from God, by the prayers of the Christians, 
and to implore his protection. 

St. Apollonius also composed an excellent apolo- 
gy in vindication of the Christians, and spoke it in a 
full senate, but having refused to renounce Chris- 
tianity, he was condemned to be beheaded about the 
year 186. 

St. Pantaenus, a learned father of the second cen- 
tury, is for his eloquence, styled, by St. Clement 
of Alexandria, the Sicilian Bee, being by profession 
a Stoic philosopher, his esteem for virtue led him in- 
o an acquaintance with the Christians, and being* 
charmed with the innocence and sanctity of their con- 
versation, he opened his eyes to the truth, and em> 
braced the faith. 

Tertuilian was born at Carthage, in the year 160. 
He applied himself from his youth to the study of 
every branch of literature, poetry, philosophy, ge» 
ometry, physic, and oratory. He dived into the 
principles of each sect, and both into the fabulous 
and into the real or historical part of mythology. 
I lis comprehensive genius led him through the whole 
irele of profane sciences. He had a surprising 
vivacity and keenness of wit, and an uncommon 
stock of natural fire, which rendered him exceed- 
ingly hot and impatient, as himself complains. His 
other passions he restrained after his conversion to 
Christianity. The motives which engaged him to 
embrace the Christian Religion were the antiquity 
of the Mosaic writings, the mighty works and wis- 
dom of the Divine Law-giver ; the continued chain 
of prophecy and wonders conducting the attentive 
ihquirer tQ Christ ; the evidence of the miracles of 



CHURCH OP CHRSI1V 89 

Christ and his Apostles ; the excellency of the law 
of the Gospel, and its amazing influence upon the 
lives of men ; the power which every Christian then 
exercised over evil spirits ; and the testimony of the 
very devils themselves, whom the infidels wor- 
shipped for Gods, and wh# turned preachers of 
Christ, howling and confessing themselves devils in 
the presence of their own votaries— • A poL c. 19, 
20. 23, &c. Being excellently formed for contro- 
versy, he immediately began to write in defence of 
religion, which was then attacked by the Heathens 
and Jews on one side, and on the other by heretics. 
He successfully employed his pen against all these 
enemies to truth. The persecution which began 
to rage, gave occasion to his Ajiologetic y which is a 
master-piece, and indisputably one of the best among 
all the works of Christian antiquity. By it he gave 
a deadly blow to Paganism, and refuted all the ca- 
lumnies published against the Christians. He shows 
the divine morality of their doctrine, and exposes 
the incoherence and absurdity of the Pagan religion. 
He mentions their submission to the Emperors, their 
love of their enemies, their mutual charity, horror 
of all vice, patience and constancy in suffering 
death and all manner of torments for the sake of 
virtue. The Heathens called them, in derision, 
Sarmentitians and Semaxians, because they were 
fastened by the executioners to trunks of trees, and 
stuck about with fagots, to be set on fire : but Ter» 
tuliian answers them, " Thus dressed about with 
" lire, we are in our most illustrious apparel ; these 
" are our triumphal robes, embroidered with palm. 
" blanches, in token of victory, and mounted upon 
" the pile we look upon ourselves as in our tri~ 
M umphal chariot. Whoever looked well into our 
" religion, but he came over to it? And who ever 
" came over to it, but was ready to suffer for it ? 
" We thank you for condemning us^, because there 
u is such a blessed discord between the divine ancL 
tt human judgment) tuat when you condemn us upom 
a earuu God absoivcth us in heaven* 5 ' 
H % 



90 HISTORY OF THE 

In his excellent book of Prescription against He- 
retics, he lays a great stress on his communion withal) 
the Apostolic Churches, especially that of Rome, and 
confutes by general principles all heresies that 
arise He shows, u thai the appeal to scripture is 
" very unjust in them who have no claim or title to 
" the scriptures : Those were carefully committed 
" in trust by the Apostles to tneir successors :" and 
he proves, that u to whom the scriptures were in- 
" trusted, to them also was committed the inicrpre- 
" tation of scripture. " He urges, c. 35, " that 
u Mercian — Appeiles — Valentinus — and Hermogc- 
" nes, a Stoic Philosopher and Christian in Africa, 
V who taught mutter to be eternal, were of too 
M modern a date, and that the Church was before 
k< them, and that before they can commence Apos- 
•• ties, they plight to say, that Christ came down 
u again from Heaven, and taught again upon 
H earth." He says, " that if they have the confi- 
il dence to put in their claim to apostolic antiquity, 
• ( they should prove tneir mission by miracles, like 
u the Apostles, and should show the original of 
M their C arches, the order and succession of their 
41 Bishops so as to ascend up to an Apostle," See* 
adds, u to these men the Church might thus 
u freely address hers It : Who are ye ? when, and 
u from whence came ye ? What do ye in my p 
" tures, who are none oi mine ? By what authority 
do you, Marcian, break in upon my enclosures I 
* c Whence, O Aj)elles, is your power to remove 
* ( my landmarks \ 'f'his field is mine of right : why, 
u then, do you at your pleasure sow and feed there- 
' in I It is my possession i I held it in times past ; 
* 1 first had it in my bands : my title to it is firm 
* and Indisputable, and derived from those persons 
u w 1 , >s< it was, and to whom it properly belonged 

" an the heir of the Apostles i as they pro- 

" vicUa in their testament) as they committed and 
lw (i< live red to my trust, as they charged and order- 
i me, so 1 bold." — c. 37. He observes, in fine, 
in this book, thaj heresies are no just cause of scan* 
dal or wonder, any more than fevers, which con^ 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 91 

sume the human body ; for they were predicted by 
Christ, and they are the necessary consequence of 
the criminal passions of men, who are unwilling to 
be governed by any rules, but model every thing ac- 
cording to their own fancy. 

The most useful among his other works, and the 
best polished, is his book On Penance, wherein he 
treats of repentance at Baptism, and for the sins 
committed after Baptism, which he there proves the 
Church has power to remit. 

In his treatise On the shows he represents them as 
occasions of sin, and the Stage as the school of the- 
world, and of course an antichristian school : He 
mentions a woman, who, going to the theatre, re* 
turned back possessed of a devil. When the exor- 
cist reproached the evil spirit for daring to attack 
one of the faithful, it boldly answered, I found her in 
my own house. 

Tertullian, in his other works, recommends mo- 
desty in attire to women, and condemns the use of 
paint. He mentions several in the Chmch living 
in perpetual continency, from a conviction that 
those, who for the sake of practising more perfec 
virtue, prefer a state of perpetual virginity and vo 
iimtury chastity, embrace that which is more per- 
fect and more excellent. This is the manifest inspired 
doctrine of St. Paul, 1 Cor. 7. and in the Revela- 
tions of St- John, 14. Spotless virgins are called? 
in a particular manner the companions of the 
Lamb, and are said to enjoy the singular privilege 
of following him wherever he goes. The holy 
Fathers are all profuse in extolling the excellency 
of holy virginity, as a special fruit of the incarna- 
tion of Christ, his divine institution, and a virtue 
that raises men, even in this mortal life, to the dig- 
nity of angels ; disengages the mind and heart from 
worldly thoughts and affections ; purifies the soul, 
and produces in it the nearest resemblance to God, 
who delights in chaste minds, and chooses to dwell 
singularly in them. 

Tertullian dissuades widows from second mar- 
riages, for this reason, among others, because he 



9'2 HISTORY ©F THE 

says, it is the duty of a widow always to fir ay for the 
tout of her deceased husband. He informs us, that on 
the sacred chalices was represented the image of the 
good shepherd bringing home the lost sheep on his 
shoulders, that the blessed Eucharist was received 
by the faithful before they took any food, that they 
fasted through obligation every day before Easter 
(that is, in Lent) till vespers, or evening prayers, 
and, out of devotion, on Wednesday and Friday till 
three o'clock, some abstaining from all vinous and 
juicy fruits, and using only dried meats, others con- 
fining themselves to bread and water. This ancient 
writer also mentions the ceremonies used at bap- 
tism ; the yearly oblations or sacrifices for the dead ; 
standing at prayer on the Lord's day, and from 
Easter to Whitsuntide ; and the sign of the cross, 
which, he says, u the Christians then usually made 
" upon their foreheads at every action and in al! 
" their motions, — at coming in or going out of 
" doors, in dressing or washing themselves, when 
" they sat down to table, or went to bed, when 
u they light a lamp or candle," Sec. — Dc Cor. oj 
3, 4. 

St. Vincent of Lerins, speaking of Tcrtulliun, 
says, He was among the Latins what Origcn was 
among the Greeks, the first man of his age. Every 
word in his writings seems a sentence, and almost 
every sentence, a new victory over his adversaries ; 
yet with all these advantages he did not persevere to 
the end of his life in the ancient and universal faith : 
by pride he miserably fell into the reveries of the 
Montanists, about the time of the death of Pope Vic- 
tor. He maintained that second marriages were un- 
lawful, and denied that the Church could forgive sins 
of impurity, murder, or idolatry. His vehement 
temper knowing no medium, he resented some af- 
fronts wnich he imagined he had received from the 
clergy of Rome , as S:. Jerome testifies, and- in this 
passion he d< M l ted ihe Church. But as Solomon's 
fall did not prejudice his former inspired writings, 
neither did the misfortune of Tertullian des'roy, at 
least the justness of the the reasoning in what he 



QHURCi* 0F CHRIST. $3 

had written in defence of the truth, any more than if 
a man lost his senses, this unlucky accident could 
annul what he had formerly done for th£ advance* 
ment of learning. 



CHAPTER XI. 

The fourth and fifth general Persecution. 

ARR1US ANTONINUS, being adopted by the 
Emperor Adrian, ascended the Imperial Throne in 
frhe year 138, and obtained the surname of Piua y 
according to some historians, by his gratitude to 
Adrian, and, according to others, by his clemency, 
and other moral virtues. He had often in his mouth 
the celebrated saying of Scipio Africanus : that 
u he would rather save the life of one citizen, than 
•«* destroy a thousand enemies." He was eminent 
for his learning, and devoted himself to the Stoic 
philosophy. Yet he had the weakness to extort, 
by his tears and entreaties, a decree from the Senate 
to enrol Adrian among the Gods, and to appoint a 
temple for his worship ; he likewise caused his wife, 
Faustina, to be honoured afer her death as a God-- 
dess. He did not raise any new persecution against 
the Church, but he was so pusillanimous, that he 
had not always courage to protect the innocent from 
the fury and malice of their enemies. St. Justin, 
Eusebius, and Tertullian inform us, that in his reign 
the blood of the saints was often shed, and that the 
Christians were tortured with the most barbarous 
cruelty, without having been convicted of any crime. 
Ruinart testifies, that in his reign the seven brothers, 
Januarius, Martialis, Felix, Philip, Sylvanus, Alex- 
ander, and Vitalis, suffered martyrdom, with their 
pious mother, Felicitas, a noble widow in Rome, 
who had brought them up in the most perfect senti- 
ments and practice of heroic virtue, and who, after 
the death of her husband, having made a vow of 
sonrinency, employed herself wholly in prayer, fast- 
ing, and works of charity, 



94 HISTORY OF Tl£E 

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the adopted son ami 
successor oi Arrius Antoninus, was renowned for his 
wisdom, moderation, and attention to the good of 
the Roman empire. He was surnamed the Philoso- 
pher , and had a saying of Plato's for ever in his 
mouth : " Happy is that state, where philosophers 
M are kings, and kings philosophers." However, 
the lustre of his wise administration was not without 
shades, and his apparent virtues were mixed with an 
alloy of superstition and vice. It is certain, that 
with ail his philosophical knowledge and princely 
qualities, he was a bigoted Pagan by principle, and 
did not love his Christian subjects, though they did 
nothing but good to mankind. Besides a tincture 
of superstition and philosophical phrenzy, a mixture 
of weakness was blended in his character, notwith- 
standing the boasted cry of his wisdom : Was it not 
acting out of character, and more like a pedant than 
a prince, for a Roman Emperor, in his old age, to 
trudge with his book, like a School-boy, to the house 
of Sextus the philosopher, to learn his lesson ? The 
fourth general persecution took place under this 
emperor, in the year 166, for he then published fresh 
edicts against the Christians, and commanded them 
to be punished with death. In consequence hereof 
numbers were crowned with martyrdom at that pe- 
rid both in Asia and in Gaul, particularly at Smyrna 
1 at Lyons, and Vienna. Amongst the rest, St. 
Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, was put to a cruel death 
at the age of eighty-six years : and Eusebius in- 
ns us, Hist. 1- 4, c. 13, that the Christians of that 
. carried away his relicks, and valued them more 
than gold and precious stones. St. Pothinus, Bishop 
of Lyons, and many others, of all ages and condi- 
tions, were also, through the most acute torments, 
conveyed to Heaven. At Rome St. Justin was be- 
headed. At length Marcus Aurelius put a stop to 
this persecution, about the year 174, and published 
an edict in favour of the Christians, after the mira- 
culous victory he gained in Germany. It is thus re- 
lated by Eusebius, Tertullian, St. Jerom, St. Grego- 
ry of Nyssa, and by the Christian and Heathen his-" 



(SHURGH OF CHRIST. 95 

tbiians of those times. Marcus Aurelius having 
long attempted, without success, to subdue the Ger- 
mans by his generals, resolved to lead a powerful 
army against them. He and his army were beyond 
the Danube, shut up in narrow defiles, and surround- 
ed by the Quadi, a people inhabiting that tract now 
©ailed Moravia. He was in such a disadvantageous 
situation, that there was no possibility that either he 
or his army could escape out of their hands, or sub- 
sist long where they were, for want of water. The 
twelfth legion, called the Meletine, from a town of 
that name in Armenia, where it had been quar- 
tered for a long time, was chiefly composed of 
Christians : These, when the army was drawn up, 
but languid and ready to perish with excessive heat 
and thirst, fell upon their knees, w as we are ac- 
u customed to do at prayer/ 5 says Eusebius, and 
humbly addressed themselves to God for relief. The 
enemies, surprised at so strange a sight, assailed the 
Roman camp with impetuosity ; but on a sudden, 
the sky being darkened with clouds, a thick rain 
showered down immediately and relieved the Ro- 
mans, who fought and drank at the same time, 
catching the rain as it fell in their helmets, and often 
swallowing it mingled with blood. By this means 
they were much refreshed; but the Germans being 
still too strong for them, the storm was driven by a 
violent wind upon their faces, and accompanied 
with such dreadful flashes of lightning and loud 
thunder, that they were terrified, and deprived of 
their sight and beaten down to the ground. In 
line, being entirely routed, and put to flight, they 
sent back thirteen thousand prisoners, whom they 
had taken, and begged for peace, on whatever condi- 
tions it should please the emperor to grant it to them. 
In acknowledgment hereof, he immediately gave 
this Christian Legion the name of the Thundering 
Legion, and took the title of the Seventh time Emfie* 
roV) contrary to custom, and without the consent of 
ihe Senate, regarding it as given him by Heaven. 
Out of gratitude to his Christian soldiers, he pub- 
lished an edict, in which ho confessed himself in- 



96 HISTORY OF THE 

debted for his delivery to the shower obtained, per- 
haps by the prayers of the Christians, and more he 
could not say, without danger of exasperating the 
Senate. In it he forbade, under pain of death, any 
one to accuse a christian, on account of his religion ; 
yet by a strange inconsistency, especially in so wise 
a prince, being overawed by the opposition of the 
Senate, he had not the courage to abolish the laws 
already made and in force against the Christians ; 
for which reason the governors in several places 
availed themselves of these laws, and put many of 
the faithful to death, though their accusers were 
also put to death, as appears in the case of St. 
Apollonius, and of the martyrs of Lyons. To per- 
petuate the remembrance of the aforesaid signal 
prodigy and wonderful deliverance of Marcus Aure- 
lius Antoninus, with his army, the Columna Anto- 
niana, or Antonine Pillar, was erected in one of the 
piazzas of Rome, with a representation of this re- 
markable event on its base relievos, by the figure of 
a Jupiter Pluvius, flying in the air, with his arms 
expanded, and a long beard, which seems to waste 
away in rain. The Christian soldiers are represent- 
ed as relieved by this sudden tempest, and in a pos- 
ture partly drinking of the rain water, and partly 
fighting against their enemies, who, on the contrary, 
are represented as stretched out on the ground with 
their horses, and upon them only the dreadful part 
of the storm is descending. Sixtus V. placed on 
the summit of this pillar a beautiful statue of St. 
Paul, as he did another elegant statue of St. Peter 
on Trajan's Pillar, instead of the golden urn, where- 
in the ashes of that emperor had been lodged ac- 
cording to the custom of the ancient Romans, These 
pillars are still extant, as iikewise a curious eques- 
trian bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius, erected in 
the centre of the platform of the Capitolium, on a 
lofty square ma hie pedestal, formed out of one block, 
by Michael Angelo. This statue is admirably well 
finished, and so expressive, that Charles Maratti, 
viewing it with admiration, cried out and said : 
March forward — Uo you Jorge t that you are alive ? 



CHURCH OF CHRIST 97 

Lucius Commodus, having succeeded his father, 
M reus Aurelius, began his reign with extraordina- 
ry moderation, and though he afterwards sunk into 
debauchery and cruelty, for which he was poisoned 
and strangled, in the year 192, yet he never perse- 
cuted the Christians. After his death, Helvius Per- 
tinax, at the age of 69 years, was made emperor by 
compulsion, but reigned only eighty-seven days, al- 
ways trembling for his own safety. He was stabbed 
in his palace by the fury of the soldiery. On that 
occasion, the Prae orian Guards, who had often made 
and unmade emperors at pleasure, debased to the 
last degree the dignity of the Roman empire, 
having exposed it to sale by public auction. Didius 
Julianus and Sulpicianus, having several times out- 
bid each other, when the latter had offered five 
thousand drachms, Julianus at once rose to 6250, 
which he promised to give each soldier. Having 
carried the empire for this price, the senate confirm- 
ed the election, but the purchaser being embarrassed 
to find money to acquit himself of his engagement, 
was murdered sixty-six days after, so that he dearly- 
bought the honour of wearing the purple, and of 
having his name placed among the emperors. Sep- 
timius Severus, a man really, as well as nominally, 
severe, vere fitrtinax, vere stveru.s, as the common 
people used to say of him, was next advanced to the 
throne, by a part of the troops, and acknowledged 
emperor by the senate. Pescenr.ius Niger, p rat feet 
in Syria, and Clodius Albinus, prsefect of Britain, 
botli competitors for the empire, were proclaimed by- 
different armies ; but Sever us defeated the first, by 
his generals, in the year 194, and the latter himself 
near Lyons, in Gaul, in the year 1.-7. The Chris- 
tians had no share in these public broils. Tertuilian, 
at that time, extols their fidelity to the ruling princes, 
and s-iys, none of them were ever founu in the ar- 
mies of rebels, or engaged in the party of either of 
the two competitors of Severus. They regarded 
the confirmation of the senate, in the name of the 
whole Roman people, as the solemn act of state by 
I 



98 HISTORY OF THE 

which the emperor was legally invested with that 
supreme dignity, and on this account, they every- 
where acknowledged and faithfully obeyed Severus ; 
nay, a Christian called Proculus, cured him miracu- 
lously of some grievous distemper, as Tertullian 
tells us, 1. de Scapul. c. 4. for which benefit the em- 
peror was for some time favourable to the Christians, 
but the clamours of the Heathens at length moved 
him to rune the fifth general persecution against 
the Church. About the conclusion of the second 
century> and the tenth year of his reign, he issued 
his bloody edicts against the Christians, and had them 
executed with such rigour and barbarity, that it was 
imagined that the time of Antichrist was come,— 
Hating formerly been governor of Lyons, and an 
eye witness to the flourishing state of that Church, 
he seems to have given particular instructions, that 
the Christians there, who refused to join the idolaters 
in the sacrifices, should be proceeded against with 
extraordinary severity. The fire of this persecu- 
tion raged through all the provinces of the Roman 
empire, but far from consuming the Church of Christ, 
it served only to purify it, and to make it shine with 
greater lustre. The more Christians were put to 
death, the more their number daily increased and 
multiplied under their very oppressions, and the 
more converts were made to Christianity from the 
view of *>uch wonderful examples of fortitude, which 
made Tertullian say, that their blood was a seed that 
continually produced new crops of Christians, and 
was multiplied to an hundred fold. God was pleas- 
ed to work miracles frequently at their martyrdom., 
whereby many of the spectators, and sometimes the 
very executioners, and the judges themselves, were 
converted. They appeared with courage before the 
tribunals, and viewed with calmness and unconcern 
the racks and other instruments prepared for their 
torture, ready to meet death in all its forms of cru- 
elty. It was not for want of strength or valour that 
they suffered with such patience every persecution 
and insu t, but from a principle of religion, which 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 99 

taught them submission to the civil authority of 
-government. They preferred torments and death 
to sin, because the love of God, above all things, 
reigned in their heart. Far from denying our reli- 
gion, " we say, we are Christians, says Tertullian. 
" We proclaim it to the whole world, even under the 
" hands of the executioners, and in the midst of all 
" the torments you inflict upon us to compel us to 
i; unsay and deny it. Torn and mangled, and welter- 
" ing in our blood, we cry out, as loud as we are 
" able to cry, that we are worshippers of God, 
" through Jesus Christ." It was under the tyrant 
Severus, that Leonidas, Origen's father, "was be- 
headed at Alexandria, St. Separatus and his com- 
panions were beheaded at Carthage, St. Felicitas and 
St. Perpetua were martyred in Mauritania, St. Pota- 
rniaena and her mother, Marcella, were burned alive 
at Alexandria, with several others who had been edu- 
cated in the school of Origen. Severus, after car- 
rying on the persecution ten years, as Sulpicius in- 
forms us, whilst he was making war in Britain, be- 
ing on his march with his army, his eldest son Bas- 
sianus, surnamed Antoninus Caracalla, who marched 
after him, stopped his horse, and drew his sword to 
stab him, but was prevented by the outcry of those 
about him. Severus only reproached him for his in- 
tended parricide, but died soon after at York, of grief 
and melancholy for his son's treachery, rather than 
of the gout. His two sons, Antoninus Caracalla, and 
Geta, succeeded him, but the eldest caused the lat- 
ter to be stabbed in his mother's bosom, who was 
sprinkled with his blood. Caracalla himself, after a 
cruel and abominable reign of six years, w r as slain 
by Macrinus, who, from being a gladiator and hunts- 
man, was elected emperor, and after an unsuccessful 
war with the Parthians, and a reign of one year and 
two months, was slain by the soldiers. Macrinus 
was succeeded by Varius Heliogabalus, who being 
one of the most filthy monsters Rome ever produc- 
ed, was likewise put to death by the soldiery, and 
afier having been dragged, through the streets o'f 
Home, he was thrown into the Tyber. 



100 HISTORY OF THE 

CHAPTER XII. 

The Church of the third Century. 

IN this century the succession of chief Pastors, 
and of Saints and Martyrs, was kept in the chair 
of St. Peter, by Zephyrinus, Calixtus, Urbanus, 
Pontianus, Antherus, Fabianus, Cornelius Lucius, 
Srephanus, Xystus. Dionysus, Felix, Eutychianus, 
Caius, and Marcellinus. In other sees, a similar 
succession of holy Bishops was kept up, the doctrine 
of faith and morals was preserved in its primitive 
piirity, and the Church of Christ made fresh acqui- 
sitions by the conversion of numberless infidels in 
Armenia and Persia, and by settling a new colony 
of Saints in the deserts of Egypt and Thebais. The 
principal fathers and ecclesiastical writers of this age 
were Caius, a disciple of the great St. I rente us, and 
a regicnary bishop, who was commissioned to preach 
the Gospel, though he was not fixed in any particu- 
lar see, Hippolytus, a most learned and holy prelate, 
Minucius Felix, Julius Africanus, St. Cyprian, St. 
Gregory of Ncocxsarea, St. Dionysius of Alexandria, 
fct. Victorinus of Pannonia, St. Methodius Bishop of 
Tyre, with whom we may join the great prodigy of 
his days, Origen, a priest of Alexandria, Arnobius 
the orator, and his scholar Lactantius, the Christian 
Tully. 

St. Zephyrinus, a native of Rome, succeeded Vic- 
tor, and filled the pontifical chair seventeen years, 
lie was a zealous defender of Christ's divinity, main- 
tained the sacred deposit of the faith of the Church 
inviolable, and watched over the purity of its morals 
and the sanctity of its discipline. lie was the sup- 
port and comfort cf his distressed flock, under 
the bloody persecution of Severn s, and he suffered 
by charity and compassion what every confessor un- 
derwent. The triumphs of the Martyrs were indeed 
his joy, but his heart received many deep wounds 
from the fall of apostates and the blasphemies of 
Artemon, Marcian, Montanus, and Theodotus the 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 101 

banker, and Theodotus the tanner. Eusebius informs 
us-that St. Zephyrinus, affected by the tears and com- 
punction of Natalis, who, covered with sackcloth 
and ashes and prostrated at the feet of the clergy, 
humbly implored forgiveness for the scandal he had 
given, re-admitted him to the communion of the 
Church, and granted him an indulgence or relaxa- 
tion of the severity of the discipline, that required a 
penitential delay and trial. 

St. Calixtus, or Calistus, succeeded St. Zephyri- 
nus in the pontificate, in the year 2 17, or 218, and 
governed the Church five years and two months 
with great prudence, piety, and religion. The pon- 
tificals ascribe to him a decree appointing the four 
quarterly fasts, called Ember days. He also decreed 
that ordinations should be held in each of the Em- 
ber weeks. From St Peter to St. Sylvester, we read 
of no other Pope holding ordinations, but in the 
month of December. The name of St. Calixtus is 
rendered famous by the ancient cemetery, which he 
enlarged and adorned on the Appian Road, and 
which, for the great number of holy martyrs, 
whose bodies were there deposited, became the most 
celebrated of all those about Rome. The entrance 
of it is at St. Sebastians, one of the seven principal 
churches of Rome, and in it the bodies of St. Peter 
and St. Paul lay for some time, according to Anas- 
tasius. Mabillon observes, that in the first ages cf 
the Church, the primitive Christians were desirous 
to be buried near the tombs of the martyrs, in hopes 
of being assisted by their prayers, and of rising in 
their glorious company at the last day. They also 
turned their faces towards the East at prayer, and 
built their churches and oratories, so that the high 
altar and head of the church, was eastwards, the 
rising Sun being a symbol of the resurrection. 
They likewise buried the faithful with their feet 
turned towards the East, that they might rise facing 
the rising sun. The Romans burned the corpses of 
their dead, and placed the urns, in which the ashes 
were contained, usually on the sides of the high 
ways, as Cicero informs us. The Egyptians pre- 
I 2 



10,2 HISTORY OF THE 

served their dead bodies, and the Persians cast them 
to the wild beasts ; but the faithful in all ages down 
from Adam, were careful to treat the dead with re- 
ligious respect, and to bury them with decency and 
modesty in the earth, where, according to the sen- 
tence pronounced by God, they return to dust till 
the general resurrection. The commendations, which 
our Lord bestowed on the Woman who poured pre- 
cious ointments upon his head, a little before his 
death, and the devotion of those pious persons, who 
took so much care of his funeral, strongly recom- 
mended this office of charity, to the primitive Chris- 
tains^and their practice in this respect, consisted 
not in any extravagant pomp, but in a modest reli- 
gious gravity and respect, that was expressive of 
their lively faith and firm hope of a future resurrec- 
tion, in which they regarded the mortal remains of 
their dead as precious in the the eyes of God, who 
watches over them, regarding them as the apple of 
his eye, to be raised one day in the brightest glory, 
and made shining lustres in the heavenly Jerusalem. 

St. Urban succeeded Calixtus in the year 223, 
and governed the Church seven years. He was 
succeeded by St. Pontian, wfeo being persecuted and 
banished by the emperor Maximinus into the isle of 
Sardinia, died there, if not by the sword, at least by 
the hardships of his exile, and the unhealthfulness 
of the air, as Tillemont informs us. T. 3. 

St. Antherus, his successor, governed the Church 
only one month and ten days. St. Fabian governed 
it sixteen years, and died a glorious martyr in the 
persecution of Decius, as St. Cyprian and St. Jc- 
rom witness. The Apostolic see remained vacant 
above sixteen months, the clergy and people not 
being able, all that time, through the violence of 
the persecution, to assemble for the election of a 
Bishop. St. Cyprian says, that such was the rage 
of Decius, that he would more easily have suffered 
a competitor in his empire than a Bishop in Rome. 
At length, however, when that emperor was at a 
distance engaged in a war with the Goths, in 
Thrace, where he perished in a bog, Cornelius-, 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 103 

who had the chief share in the direction of affairs, 
in the Roman Church, during the vacancy, was 
elected Pope, in the year 250, by almost all the 
clergy of Rome and a great number of the laity, 
with the concurring suffrages of sixteen ancient and 
worthy Bishops, who were then present. St. Cy- 
prian exceedingly extols the zeal and piety with 
which St. Cornelius behaved in his pastoral charge, 
and the courage and steadfastness, with which he 
adhered to his duty in the most perilous times. 
He assembled at Rome a Synod of sixty Bishops, 
in which he confirmed the Canons, by which it 
was ordained to admit the lapsed that were peni- 
tent to public penance ; and Bishops and Priests 
who had fallen only to the rank of laymen, without 
power of exercising any sacerdotal function. Nova- 
tian, who was there present, and obstinately refused 
to communicate with such penitents, was excommu- 
nicated, and several persons, who had been seduced 
by him to favour his schism, repented and were re- 
ceived to communion by St. Cornelius, to the great 
joy of the people. 

This Novatian had been a Stoic philosopher, and 
had gained a considerable reputation by his elo- 
quence. Having embraced the faith, he continued 
a catechumen, till falling dangerously ill, and his 
life being despaired of, he was baptized in bed, not 
by immersion, which was then the most usual me- 
thod, but by infusion, or the pouring on of water. 
On recovering, he received not the seal of the 
Lord, by the hand of the Bishop, says St. Pacian, 
that is to say, the sacrament of Confirmation. Both 
these defects were, by the ancient discipline of the 
Church, bars to Holy Orders. The Clinici^ or 
persons who had been baptized in bed in the time of 
sickness, were declared irregular, and excluded 
from the priesthood ; not as if such a baptism was 
defective, but in detestation of the sloth and luke- 
warmness by which such persons put off their bap* 
tism till they were in immediate danger of death. — . 
Novatian, notwithstanding this double irregularity^ 
was afterwards ordained Priest, and with a view to 



104 HISTORY OF THE 

make himself conspicuous, he opposed the pastors 
of the Church, Complaining, that by a criminal 

relaxation of the law of the Gospel, they too easily 
admitted again those who had fallen in the persecu- 
tion. By tins rigour and pharisaical zeal he made 
an open schism, pretending, that the lapsed ought 
never to be again admitted to penance, or to receive 
absolution, not even after having performed any 
coui^e of penance, or in the article of their deaih. 
On account of his errors, he is called by St. Cy- 
prian, Ep. 57. a deserter of the Church, an enemy 
to all tenderness, a very murderer of penance, a 
teacher of pride, a corrupter of the truth, and a 
destroyer of charity. At length he added heresy 
to his schism, and maintained, that the Church had 
not received from Christ power to absolve sinners 
from the crime of apostacy, how penitent soever 
they might be. His followers and disciples, who 
were called Novatians, and Cathari, that is, pure, 
taught the same of murder and fornication, and 
condemned second marriages. Novatian gained 
over to his party some confessors, who were in pri- 
son at Rome, and decoyed three Bishops from a 
corner of Italy to come to Rome and ordain him 
Bishop of that city, in opposition to the holy *Pope 
Cornelius, who was sent into banishment by the 
Emperor Gallus to Centumccllse, now called Civita 
Veccfiia. St. Cyprian wrote him a congratulatory 
letter upon the news of his happiness, in suffering 
for Christ, and in it he foretold his own approaching 
conflicts and martyrdom. 

St Cornelius being called to eternal bliss, in the 
year 252, St. Lucius was elected, and he suffered 
a glorious martyrdom about five months after his 
election, as St. Cyprian assures us St. Lucius hav- 
ing recommended St. Stephen for his successor, he 
was accordingly chosen Pope, on the third of May, 
in the year 253. The controversy concerning the 
rc-baptization of heretics gave St. Stephen much 
trouble. It was the constant doctrine of tne Catho- 
lic Church, that baptism ^iven in the name of the 
Three persons of the Holy Trinity, is valid, though 



CHURCH OF CHRIST 105 

it be conferred by an heretic ; for Christ being the 
principal, though invisible minister, in the admini- 
stration of the sacraments, though both faith and 
the state of grace be required in him who confers 
any sacrament, not to incur the guilt of sacrilege ; 
yet neitheir is required for the validity. St. Cyprian, 
Firmilian, and seme other African prelates, support- 
ed the contrary opinion, and falsely imagined this 
to be a point, not of faith, which is every where 
invariable, but of mere discipline, in which every 
church might be allowed to follow its own rule or 
law. St. Stephen, who saw the danger which 
threatened the Church under the colour of zeal for 
its purity and unity, and an aversion from heresy, 
opposed himself as a rampart for the house of God, 
declaring, that no innovation is to be allowed, but 
that the tradition of the Church, derived from the 
Apostles, is to be inviolably maintained. He even 
threatened to cut off the partisans of this novelty 
from the communion of the Church, but never pro- 
ceeded to pronounce any sentence against them, or 
they never would have stood out against a censure, 
in which the whole Church acquiesced, irie suf- 
fered himself patiently to be traduced as a favourer 
of heresy in approving heretical baptism, and was 
insensible to all personal injuries, not doubting but 
those great men, who by a mistaken zeal were led 
astray, would, when the heat of disputing should 
have subsided, calmly open their eyes to the truth. 
Thus by his zeal he preserved the integrity of faith, 
and by his forbearance he saved many souls from 
the danger of shipwreck. He was sensible, that the 
rule of faith admits nothing new, but that all things 
are to be delivered down to posterity, with the same 
fidelity, with which they were received, and that it 
is our duty to make our own imaginations bend to 
the wisdom of those that went before us, and to 
follow religion, and not to make religion follow us, 
What then was the issue of this grand aff ir, but 
that, which is usual : Antiquity kept possession, and 
novelty was exploded. 



106 HISTORY OP THE 

Upon the demise of St. Stephen, St. Xystus suc- 
ceeded him in the pontificate. He is styled by St. 
Cyprian a peaceable and excellent prelate. He 
suffered martyrdom in the year 258, under the em- 
peror Valerian, in a cemetery, for the Christians 
in the times of persecution resorted to cemeteries 
and subterraneous caverns to celebrate the divine 
mysteries, and to visit out of devotion the tombs of 
the martyrs. After the death of St. Xystus, or Six- 
tus, through the violence of the persecution, the 
holy see continued vacant almost a year, until St. 
Dionysius was chosen on the 2d of July, 259. He 
was eminent for his learning, and for his charity to 
the distressed and indigent. He condemned the er- 
rors of Sabelliusj and confuted the blasphemies of 
Paul of Samosata. 

St. Felix succeeded St. Dionysius in the govern- 
ment of the Church, in the year 259. Paul of Sa- 
mosata, the proud Bishop of Antioch, to the guilt 
of other crimes added that of heresy, teaching 
that Christ was no more than a mere man, in whom 
the Divine Word dwelt, by its operation, and as in 
its temple ; with many other gross errors concerning 
the capital mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation. 
St. Felix wrote on this occasion a learned epistle, 
quoted by the council of Ephesus, and clearly ex- 
plained the Catholic doctrine of the whole mystery 
of the Incarnation. lie governed the Church five 
years, and passed to glorious eternity in the year 
274. He was succeeded by St. Eutychian, who is 
said to have interred with his own hands no less than 
342 martyrs at Rome. St. Caius succeeded St. Eu- 
tychian in the apostolic see, in the year 283, and 
sat twelve years, four months, and seven days. The 
ancient pontificals say lie was a native of Dalmatia, 
and related to the emperor Dioclcsian. He was 
succeeded by St. Marcel lin US, in the year 296, about 
the time that Dioclesian set himself up for a deity, 
and impiously claimed divine honours. St. Theodo- 
re! tells us, that in those stormy times of persecution, 
Marcelhnus acquired great glory. Pctilian, the 
Donatish Pi.shop, objected to the Catholics, that 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 107 

Marcellinus had sacrificed to idols, and had deliver- 
ed up ihe Holy Scriptures to the persecutors ; and 
that Melchiadcs, Marcellus, and Sylvester, were 
guilty of the same apostacy. But St. Augustin en- 
tirely denied the charge, which was a mere calumny 
of the Donatists, 1. contr. Petil. c. 16. t. 9. p. 541. 
Yet upon this slander some others built another fie* 
titious history of his repentance in a pretended 
council of Sinuessa. See Pagi, Orsi, and Tillemont* 
ad An. 303. 

St. Caius and St. Hippolytus are justly ranked 
among the most illustrious Doctors, wi o flourished 
in the third century. They were both disciples of 
Irenaeus. St. Hippolytus was the master of Origen. 
St. Jerom calls him a most holy and eloquent man. 
St Chrysostom styles him a source of light, a faith- 
ful witness, a most holy Doctor, and a man full of 
sweetness and charity. Theodoret styles him a spi- 
ritual fountairf in the Church. A collection of his 
homilies was extant in Theodoret's time. He wrote 
comments on several parts of the Holy Scriptures, 
and treatises on the mysteries of the Trinity and 
Incarnation, on the divinity of the Son of God, on 
the distinction of the divine and human nature in 
Christ, on the resurrection of the dead, on the fast 
of Saturday, on the holy Communion, on the ori- 
gin of good and evil He wrote also a book against 
heresies, particularly against the errors of Noetus, 
Marcian, &c. 

Minucius Felix seems to have been originally an 
African, though he lived at Rome, and there plead* 
ed at the bar, with great reputation, for eloquence 
and probity. He was called in an advanced age to 
the light of divine wisdom, as he says, and he had 
humility enough to despise the rank which he held 
among the learned and the great ones in the world, 
and by a happy violence, to embrace the doctrine 
of the cross, and enter heaven in the company of 
the ignorant, and the little ones, says St. Eucheri- 
ns. Minucius had two African friends, Cecilius and 
Octavius, who were joined with him in a course of 
the same studies. They were all three eminent and 



108 HISTORY OF THE 

learned men of the first rank, and formed together 
a triumvirate of perfect friendship. Octavius seems 
to have had the glory of leading the way ; for Mi- 
nucius says, he ran before him as a guide ; but like 
a true friend, he could not be content or happy 
Without his dear Minucius. He gave himself no re- 
pose, so long as he saw his friend, his other half, 
remain in the darkness of infidelity, and in the 
shades of death. Words from the mouth of such 
a friend, drop like honey from the honey comb, 
■whilst from a harsh prophet, whom we hate, troth 
itself becomes unacceptable. Minucius- therefore, 
was easily prepared to receive the impressions of 
virtue, and this blessed pair became one in religion 
as well as in friendship The Christian faith, 
■which he embraced, far from abating, served only 
to refine and perfect their mutual affection, and 
make them congratulate each other upon their new 
life, in transports of holy joy, which all their ora- 
tory wanted words to express. They looked back 
on their past sinful lives with sorrow, and could re- 
li.-di nothing for the future, but the humiliations of 
the cross, and the severities of penance. Racks 
and tortures they overlooked with triumph, both 
turned advocates for the faith of Christ, and with- 
out any other retaining tee than the reward of their 
ciiarity, and the expectation of a happiness beyond 
the grave, they strenuously pleaded the cause of 
their crucified Redeemer The two illustrious law- 
yers and converts seemed now to want nothing them- 
selves, but they were extremely desirous to make 
Cccilius, their third friend, a happy convert like 
themselves. This however was a work of difficul- 
ty, that called for the last effort of their piety fid 
friendship. Early prejudices from education leave 
a tincture upon the mind, which seldom wears out 
viuiout much pains and ingenuity; and how supine 
sower such a conduct is in matters of this nature 
and importance, men often are inclined to content 
themselves with the religion oft! .rs, almost 

as naturally as they take up with th ;ir Ian ■' — 
Cecilius, moreover, was a man of the world, and 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 109 

of latitudinarian principles, and therefore was hard- 
ly to be come at with argument. He was a per- 
son of wit and abilities, but his own idol, and a 
great lover of applause and pleasure. Hence his 
chief religion seems to have been to serve himself. 
To complete his character, the philosophy he had 
imbibed only raised his vanity, and intoxicating his 
head with conceit, set him at the greatest distance 
from the reach of argument. But notwithstanding 
this seemingly inaccessible temper of mind, we find 
Cecilius, at length, by the power of divine grace, 
made a glorious convert, an eminent saint, and, in 
all probability, the converter of the great St. Cy- 
prian. Octavius and Minucius were the instruments 
which God was pleased to make use of, to effect this 
great work. They began by recommending it to 
God by their fervent prayers. And their victory 
over him was the issue of a conference, the sum of 
which Minucius has left us in an elegant dialogue, 
which he entitled Octavius, in honour of his friend, 
and which for purity and delicacy of the Latin lan- 
guage is not equalled by any Pagan writers of that 
age. 

Thascius Cyprian, the son of one of the princi- 
pal senators of Carthage, tells us, that he lived a 
long time amidst the Fasces, which were the Roman 
emblems of the supreme magistracy, but he deplores 
that he was then a slave to vice and evil habits. — 
" I lay in darkness," says he, " and 1 floated on 
" the boisterous sea of this world, a stranger to the 
" light, and uncertain where to fix my feet." He 
passed the greater part of his life in the study of 
philosophy and all the liberal arts ; and made such 
improvements in oratory and eloquence, that he 
was chosen public professor of rhetoric at Car- 
thage, a city inferior to none but Rome for the 
number of its inhabitants. He was upon the bor- 
ders of old age, when he was rescued from the 
darkness of Paganism and the servitude of vice. 
Cecilius, an holy Priest of Carthage, was the hap- 
py instrument, in the hands of God, of his con- 
version to the Christian religion, for which reason, 
K 



110 HISTORY OF THE 

Cyprian ever after reverenced him as his benefac- 
tor, his father, and guardian angel, and to express 
this gratitude would from that time be called Thasci- 
us Cecilius Cyprian. Pontius informs us, that he 
applied himself with great eagerness to the lecture 
of the holy scriptures ; and finding the sacred ora- 
cles very copious in the commendation of p 
and continence, he made a resolution to practise 
these virtues for the more easy attainment of true 
perfection Soon after his baptism he sold his 
-whole estate, and gave almost all the money, /and 
whatever else he possessed, for the support of the 
poor. With the study of the holy scriptures St. 
Cyprian joined that of their best interpreters, and 
in a short time became acquainted with the most ap- 
proved ecclesiastical writers. He was particularly 
delighted with the writings of his countryman Ter- 
tullian, scarce passing a day without reading some- 
thing in them, and when he called for them, used to 
say, Reach hither my Master, as St. Jerom relates. 
But though he admired his genius, and the variety 
of his learning, he was upon his guard not to imi- 
tate any of his faults or errors. St. Cyprian led a 
retired penitential life, and made such a progress 
in virtue, that, whilst he was yet in the rank of the 
Neophytes, or persons lately baptized, he was rais- 
ed to the priesthood at the earnest request of the 
people ; his exemplary piety and extraordinary me- 
rit being judged a sufficient motive for dispensing in 
the rule laid down by St. Paul against admitting Neo- 
phytes to holy orders. Within less than a year 
after he was chosen by the clergy and people Bi- 
shop of Carthage, and successor to Donatus, and 
was consecrated with the unanimous approbation 
of the Bishops of the province. In the discharge 
of the episcopal functions, he showed abundance of 
piety, charity, goodness, and courage, mixed with 
vigour and steadiness. His writings, says St. Je- 
rom, shine more bright than the sun. When the 
cruel edicts of Decius reached Carthage, in the 
year 250, they were no sooner made public, but 
the idolaters, in a kind of sedition, ran to the mar- 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 1U 

ket place, confusedly crying out, Cyfirian to the llons^ 
Cyprian to the wild beasts. But Diving Providence 
vouchsafed to preserve the vigilant pastor, that by 
his active zeal and authority he might support and 
comfort his flock, maintain discipline, and repair 
the ruins caused by the persecution that raged. He 
encouraged and animated the confessors in prison, 
and took care that priests, in turns, should visit them, 
and offer the sacrifice of the altar, and give them 
the holy communion every day in their dungeons ; 
for he said : " We should support and strengthen 
a them with the body and blood of Christ, unless 
" we would leave those naked and defenceless, whom 
" we are exhorting to fight our Lord's battle. The 
" design of the Eucharist being to be a defence 
" and security for those who partake of it, we 
" should fortify them, whose safety we are concern- 
6{ ed for, with the armour of our Lord's banquet, 
'< How shall they be able to die for Christ ? How 
" shall we fit them for drinking the cup of martyr- 
" dom, if w% will not first admit them to the cup of 
" the Lord F Epist. 57. 

According to the discipline of the Church, in St, 
Cyprian's days, the lapsed sinners, whether Thari- 
ficati and Sacrificati, that is, apostates, who had sa- 
crificed to idols, or Libellatici^ who, without sacri- 
ficing, had purchased for money libels and certifi- 
cates, as if they had offered sacrifices, were not ad- 
mitted to assist at the holy mysteries, before they 
had gone through a most rigorous course of public 
penance, consisting of four degrees, and of several 
years continuance. When, during this penitential 
term, absolution was given in danger ol death, if 
the penitent recovered he was obliged to accomplish 
his course as to the austerities enjoined him. Re- 
laxations of these penances, called indulgences, were 
granted on certain extraordinary occasions, as on 
account of the uncommon fervour of a penitent, 
or on occasion of a new persecution. It was also 
customary to grant indulgences to penitents, who 
brought tickets from some martyr going to execu- 
tion, or from some Confessor in prison for the faiths 



I 12 HISTORY OF THE 

containing a request in their behalf, which the Bi- 
shop and his clergy examined and often ratified. 
This custonft at length degenerated in Africa into a 
great abuse, by the multitude of such tickets, which 
were often given in too peremptory terms, and 
without examination or discernment, to the great 
prejudice of souls, and the relaxation of the disci- 
pline of the Church. Novatus, Felicissimus, and 
live other turbulent men, formed also a schism in 
Carthage, and held their great assemblies upon a 
mountain. Novatus received, without any canoni- 
cal penance, all apostates that desired to return to 
the communion of the Church. St. Cyprian, see- 
ing the mischief that threatened his flock, severely 
condemned those abuses, and exhorted the faithful 
to beware of being misled by the schism, which he 
calls more dangerous than the persecutions of the 
Pagans. " There is," says he, " one God, and 
11 one Christ, and but one episcopal chair original- 
M ly founded on Peter, by our Lord's authority. 
11 There cannot, therefore, be erected another al- 
*' tar, or another priesthood. Whatever any man 
ki in his rage or rashness shall appoint, in defiance 
H of the divine institution, must be a spurious, prp- 
" fane, and sacrilegious ordinance," Epist 43 ; and 
in Epist. 11. he complains, "that by the recom- 
" mendation of the Confessors, some Priests had 
u presumed to make oblations for the lapsed, and to 
u admit them to the holy Eucharist, that is, indeed, 
" to profane the body of our Lord. — And as a fur- 
" ther aggravation, says he, they have admitted 
u those sinners to communion before any submission 
" made by them to penitential discipline, before any 
M confession made of their heinous and crying sin : . 
l * and before any imposition of hands made by the 
u Bishop and his clergy unto penance — Such priests, 
" instead of approving themselves true shepherds 
i 4 of the sheep, become as bad to them as butchers 
** and murderers. For a mischievous condescension 
'* is in effect a cheat, nor are those who have faJ- 
c 4 len, raised by such helps, but rather cast down* 
«* and pushed upon destruction,' 3 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 113 

In his 1 6th Epistle, he threatens to restrain from 
offering, or to suspend, some of the priests, who, 
forgetting the rules of the Gospel, as well as the 
rank they hold in the Church, rashly and hastily 
admitted penitents to Communion, though they had 
not performed their penance, made no humble con- 
fession of their sin, nor received the imposition of 
hands from the Bishop and his clergy ; the holy 
Eucharist is administered to them, in defiance of 
the Scripture, which saith : Whoever shall eat or 
drink unworthily , shall be guilty of the body and blood 
of the Lord. 1 Cor. 11. 27. Of such priests he says,, 
Ep. 34. " Let them be suspended from their month- 
44 ly dividend;" for the revenues of the clergy then 
consisted chiefly of the oblations of the faithful, 
which were divided every month into four parts, 
one of which was assigned to the Bishop, and one 
to his clergy. The other two parts were allowed 
to the poor, and the expenses of the oratories or 
churches. Ep. 39. 

In his book On the Lafised, he bitterly deplores 
the lamentable fall of apostates, and says, his very 
bowels were rent with a grief which no words 
couid express, and which admitted no alleviation 
but that of tears and sighs. He expatiates on the 
grievousness of the crime of apostacy, and on the 
remedies of it, and inveighs against a rash, hasty 
absolution, and pretended reconciliation. " He 
" would," says this holy doctor, ** betray a great 
" ignorance of his profession, who> for fear of 
" putting his patient to pain, by opening his wound* 
" should softly handle it, skin it over, and close it 
44 up, not cleansing it of the corruption lodged in it ; 
* 4 for by such unskilful management, the malignity 
44 would take deep root, and taint the whole mass. 
" The wound, in all such cases* must be opened, 
" the knife must not be spared, all superfluities must 
" be pared away, without regard to. the pain occa- 
" sioned by so sharp a treatment. If the patient 
" complains and cries out for the present, he will 
" afterward thank the operator, when he finds his 
" recovery has been owing to such a treatment— 
K 2 



114 HISTORY OF THE 

" A delusive absolution is given at random, danger- 
<; ous to the givers, useless to the receivers. Com- 
" ing fresh from the altar of the Devil, their hands 
M yet reeking with the blood of the sacrifices offered 
" thereon, they would fain approach the highest mys- 
" teries — in spite of these divine admonitions, vio- 
" ience is offered to the body and blood of Christ — 
;c they who dispense it to them, resemble unskilful 
" pilots, who instead of conducting their vessel safe 
L * into the harbour, split it upon the rocks." 

The zealous pastor then shows, "that penitents 
•» deceive themselves, who think that a reconcilia- 
:i tion can be given them before they have expiated 
" their crime by penance, and purified their con- 
" science by imposition of hands from the Bishop. 5 * 
To strike a terror into sinners, he relates several ex- 
amples of persons severely punished by God, in a 
miraculous manner, for being so bold as to receive 
ihe body and blood of Christ before they had done 
condign penance. He adds a strong exhortation to 
penance, and says, " that some among the faithful, 
« because they had once sinned only in thought and 
" purpose, confessed this with much grief to the 
* priests of God, doing severe penance, imburden- 
A ing their consciences, and seeking a healthy reme- 
« dy for their wounds," which is a proof of the 
esteem they had for voluntary confession, as no one 
-ould have called them to an account for their sinful 
thoughts, if they had not of their own accord de- 
>:rlared them. He then repeats his pressing solicita- 
tions to sinners. " Let every one of you make an 
fl humble and solemn confession of his sin, whilst 
" he is yet in the world, whilst his confession can 
w be admitted, whilst his satisfaction and the pardon 
w given him by the Priests are available with God." 

In his discourse on the Lord's Prayer, he takes 
notice that the Priest, in the preface of the celebration 
of the Eucharist, said Sursum corda, " Lift up your 
"hearts;" and that the people answered, We lift 
them up to the Lord, 

In this book On the Mortality, " or pestilence," 
he shows " that true servants of God ought to re- 



CHUKCH OF CHRIST. 115 

« joice in calamities, because they afford opportuni- 
" ties to exercise patience and all heroic virtues, 
" and to merit Heaven. As for death, no man, ,? 
says he, " can be afraid of it, but he who is loath to 
" go to Christ/' He strongly exhorts all Chris- 
tians to wish heartily for the happy hour of their 
death, " as it will be their passage to the glory of 
" Heaven, their admission into the kingdom of di«> 
" vine love, and into the glorious society of angels- 
" and saints." 

In his book On the Habit of Virgins^ he wonder- 
fully extols the sanctity of their state, and severely 
condemns all painting of the hair or face, which dis- 
guises, and pretends to mend the workmanship of 
God, and all allurements of dress, by which those 
whose modesty is cheap draw the eyes of others af- 
ter them, and ruin their souls. The more curious, 
he says, persons are in setting off their bodies, the 
more careless they grow as to the ornaments of their 
minds. 

In his book on The Unity of the Churchy he demon- 
strates the Church of Christ to be essentially One, 
and says, " that Christ built his Church upon St, 
" Peter, and gave the power of the keys to him ; 
" and though he also gave the same power to all 
" his Apostles, he would have it take its rise from 
" one, and settled the whole upon that foundation." 
The holy doctor says also, in the same book, " He 
m cannot ever attain the recompense propounded by 
« Christ to his followers, who deserts his Church. 
*< He becomes thence unsanctified, an alien, and a, 
" downright enemy. He cannot have God for his 
« father, who hath not the Church for his mother., 
ft Could any one escape who was not with Noah in 
« the Ark ? Whatever shall be separated from the 
" fountain of life, can have no life remaining in it, 
« after having lost all communication with its vital 
" principle." 

His treatise on Alms and Good Works^ is a moving 
exhortation to alms-deeds and works of mercy, as 
commanded in the holy Scriptures, and as the means 
to obtain the divine mercy. He teaches us, that 



I 16 HISTORY OF THE 

all that is su/ierjiuous u due to the poor. " Let the 
" necessitous," says he, " be sensible of your abun- 
" dance ; put your money to God, who will re- 
-pay pour loans with interest; feed your Re- 
t; deemer in his destitute and hungry members ; 
:; engage, by your treasure many solicitors at the 
ki throne of grace," Sec. In fine, in a council of 
6 I Bishops, assembled in Carthage, in the year 2i3, 
lie supported the necessity of infant baptism; and 
in his other writings he shows that it was always the 
belief of the Church, that the saints in Heaven in- 
tercede for us before God — that it was customary to 
mention the names of the faithful departed, at the 
altar, and to make an oblation for their repose after 
their death, at the Eucharist or the M.os He 
mentions, also, the use of the cross ut baptism, and 
says, that a Christian is fortified by the defensive 
sign of the cross — L 2. Tesdin. His zeal was inde- 
fatigable in exhorting the confessors, and in pro- 
curing them all possible succour. He was careful 
in devoutly honouring the memory of the martyrs, 
after their triumphs, by sacrifices of thanksgiving 
to God on their annual festivals ; " We offer up," 
says he, "the usual sacrifices and oblations in com- 
4; memoration of them." As to the dispute which 
he carried on with a degree of warmth with St. 
Stephen, St. Augustine says, that his fault wjs com- 
pensated by the abundance of his charity, and puri- 
fied by the axe of his passion, for St. Cyprian was 
beheaded for the faith, on the 14th of September, in 
the year 253. 

St. Gregory, surnamed Thaumaturgus, or worker 
of miracles, on account of his extraordinary mi- 
racles, and his brother, Athenorus, were disciples 
of the great Origen. They were both converted 
from Paganism to Christianity, and raised to the 
episcopal dignity with the usual ceremonies. St. 
Gregory was consecrated Bishop of Neocaesarea, 
in Pontus. He committed to writing the famous 
Creed, or rule of faith, concerning the mystery of 
the Holy Trinity, which is extant in his works He 
also wrote a canonical epistle, which holds an emi- 



f WE Cri OF CHRIST. 117 

rieut rank among the penitential canons of the 
Church, and in which he mentioned the four dis- 
tinct classes oi penitents. He and Ins brother are 
named the first among the subscribers to the council 
that was held at Antioch, in the year 264, to con- 
demn the heresies broached by Paul of Samosata, 
one of the most haughty and vain of mortals, who 
had caused hymns in his own praise to be sung in 
the Church. 

St. Dionysius, Archbishop of Alexandria, is 
called, by St. Athanasius the doctor of the Catholic 
Church. Being born of Heathen parents, but of 
high rank in the world, he was educated at Alexan- 
dria, then the centre of the sciences, and ran 
through the whole circle of profane learning. Fall- 
ing at length upon the Epistles of St. Paul, he found 
in them charms which he had not met with in the 
writings of the Philosophers, and opening his heart 
to the truth, and turning it perfectly to God, he re- 
nounced the errors of idolatry, and trampled under 
his feet all the glory and applause of the world. He 
became an humble scholar in the catechetical school 
of Origen, and made such progress, that he was or- 
dained Priest, and afterwards Bishop of Alexandria. 
When the sanguinary edict of Decius reached Alex- 
andria, in the year 2oi>j St. Dionysius was particu- 
larly active in arming and prepaiing the faithful for 
the combat. He wrote two books against the Mille- 
narians, and persuaded several to forsake the Novi- 
tian schism. He condemned the blasphemies of Sa- 
bellius, in a council at Alexandria, and strenuously 
defended the real distinction of the three Divine Per- 
sons. The loss of his works is extremely regretted, 
for of them nothing has reached us, except some 
fragments quoted by others, and his Canonical Epis- 
tle, wherein he mentions the austere manner in 
which the faithful then fasted the Lent before 
Easter, and inculcates the great purity, both in mind 
and body, that is required in all who approach tho 
Holy Table, and receiye the body and blood of our*. 
Lord. 



1 18 HISTORY OF THE 

St. Victorinus is styled, by St. Jerom, one of the 
pillars of the Church. He wrote against most here- 
sies of that age, and. comments on a great part of the 
holy Scriptures ; but all his works are lost, except 
a small treatise on the creation of the world, and a 
treatise on the Apocalypse, extant in the library of 
the Fathers. 

Origen was the eldest son of Leonides, a Chris- 
tian philosopher at Alexandria, who brought him up 
with great care, returning thanks to God for having 
blessed him with a son of such an excellent disposi- 
tion for learning, and a very great zeal for piety. 
These qualifications endeared him greatly to his fa- 
ther, who, after his son was baptized, would come 
to his bedside, whilst he was asleep, and opening 
his bosom, kiss it respectfully, as being the temple 
of the Hoiy Ghost. Origen became a scholar first 
of St. Clement, then regent of the famous catecheti- 
cal school in Alexandria, and afterward a scholar of 
the celebrated philosopher, AmmoniusSaccas. When, 
the persecution raged in Egypt, in the tenth year of 
Severus, Leonides was cast into prison. Origen, 
who was then only seventeen years of age, burned 
with an incredible desire of martyrdom, and sought 
every opportunity of meeting with it : but his mo- 
ther conjured him not to forsake her, and, seeing his 
ardour redoubled at the sight of his father's chains, 
was forced to lock up his clothes to oblige him to 
stay at home ; so, not being able to do any more, he 
wrote a letter to his father, in very moving terms, 
strongly exhorting him to look on the crown of glory 
that was ottered him, with courage and joy, adding 
this clause, " Take heed, Sir, that, for our sakes, 
u you do not change your mind." Leonides was 
accordingly beheaded for the faith in the year 202. 
His estates and goods being all confiscated and 
seized for the Emperor's use, his widow was left 
with seven sons to maintain, in the poorest condition 
imaginable : but Divine Providence was both her 
comfort and support. 

Origen, being reduced to extreme poverty after 
the death of his father, was relieved by the liberal- 



IHUUCH OF CIIRIST. 119 

-ity of a rich lady of Alexandria. He made such 
improvements in all sorts of learning, that he was 
regarded as a prodigy, for his genius and extensive 
knowledge. At the age of eighteen years he was 
appointed by Demetrius, the Bishop, to preside 
in the great school of Alexandria, where he was 
soon followed, consulted, and respected*by a number 
of disciples, who after being with the greatest mas- 
ters in the world, were thereby only qualified to be- 
come his scholars and to crowd to his lectures. 
From his school, innumerable doctors, priests, con- 
fessors, and martyrs came forth. He seemed scarce 
ever to cease from application, or to know any dif- 
ference, us to repose, between day and night. Be- 
sides his public lectures, the fatigue of which was 
enough to kill another person, he dictated to seven 
Amanuenses. He led a most austere life, walking 
almost barefooted, sleeping upon the bare ground, 
watching much, besides fasting often. He abstain- 
ed from flesh meat, and during many years from 
wine, till the weakness of his breast obliged him to 
mingle a little with his water. He is said to have 
written six thousand volumes, but by blending the 
Platonic philosophy with the Christian theology, he 
fell into some errors, that were condemned in the 
fifth general council, though he never, as long as he 
lived, withdrew himself from the Church. The most 
celebrated work he wrote is his Apology for the 
Christian Religion, published in the year 249, against 
Celsus, the Epicurean philosopher, who lived in the 
reign of Adrian, and who was the most formidable 
adversary that ever attacked, in writing, the Chris- 
tian Religion. Porphyrius the Tyrian philosopher ; 
Hierocles ; and Julian, the Apostate, wrote, indeed, 
against it many bitter invectives, ludicrous cavils, and 
slanders, supported only by an extravagant sophis- 
try, that visibly betrays the weakness of infidelity^ 
and strengthens the cause of truth, as St. Eusebius 
of Caesarea, St. Gregovy Nazianzen, and St. Cyril, 
have clearly demonstrated. But of all the writers 
against Christianity, Celsus was the most crafty and 
subtle, for he wrote with the most refined fallacy 



120 HISTORY OF THE 

that sophistry could invent, with an air of positive- 
ness to impose upon the vulgar, and with all the ad- 
vantages that wit and raillery could give. He was 
also master of all the difficulties that an extensive 
knowledge, seconded hy artifice and management, 
could object. On the other side, Origen, with all 
the sense and solidity of right reason, reduces every 
argument to its true principles, follows his adversary 
step by step, convicts him of falsehood in point of 
fact, refutes all his calumnies, sets in the true light 
things which his adversary disguised or smothered, 
and established the truth of the Christian religion 
by the evidence of facts and of its history. Euse- 
bius and St. Jerom say, that all objections that ever 
were, or can be made to Christianity, will find an an- 
swer in this work. ] 

Arnobius was a native of Sicca, in Africa, and a 
celebrated rhetorician, about the close of the third 
century. From a most fiery stickler for idolatry, he 
became an illustrious champion for Christianity, be- 
ing compelled, by heavenly admonitions, to acknow- 
ledge the evidence of divine Revelation, as St. Jerom 
says. Being thus miraculously converted, like ano- 
ther Saul, he desired baptism, but, the Bishop of 
Sicca, considering with what fury he had declaimed 
against the Church, before he would admit him to 
the laver of salvation, required, as a condition, that 
he should, by some learned work, give a public tes- 
timony to the truth, which he had so violently com- 
bated. The sincere convert, impatient to attain to 
the desired happiness, wrote his seven books Against 
the Gentiles, whijbrt a novice in the faith, and un- 
doubtedly would have better polished his style, if the 
haste with which he wrote had allowed him leisure 
to give it the last finishing strokes. 

Lectantius, the famous Latin author, was in his 
vouth a disciple of Arnobius, at Sicca, and was con- 
Verted to the faith from Idolatry. His writings are 
full of admirable precepts of morality which he en- 
forces with invincible eloquence. But after his con- 
version his pen was chiefly employed in overthrow- 
ing Paganism, which he confutes with all the ardour 



and spirit imaginable. He combats the different 
sects of the Heathen philosophers, pursuing them 
through all the labyrinths of error and false judg- 
ment, without ever losing himself. Having explo- 
ded falsehood, he introduces the most noble, sub* 
lime, and perfect philosophy of the holy Scriptures* 
which alone satisfies all the inquiries of human rea- 
son, wherein all systems of philosophers are infi* 
nitely deficient. He relates the several persecu- 
tions which the Church had suffered, and the exem- 
plary punishments which God had inflicted on the 
persecutors. He tells us, that as the Emperor Dio- 
elesian was offering sacrifice at Antioch, one of his 
officers made on his forehead the sign of the cross, 
and thereupon, to the great trouble of the Pagans', 
the auspices were disturbed, and the daemons disap- 
peared — de Mort. Persec. c. li. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The Jive last general Persecutions* 

THE Emperor Alexander, surnamed Severus, 
cousin german and successor of Heliogabalus, was 
one of the best of Princes. Two maxims, which he 
learned of the Christians, were the rules by which 
he endeavoured to square his conduct : The first 
was, " Do to all men as you would have others do 
to you." The second, that all places of command 
are to be bestowed on those who are the best quali- 
fied for them. He forbade the sale of employments, 
saying, " He that buys must sell." He kept the 
soldiers in awe by regular pay, and gave salaries out 
of the treasury to the rulers of provinces, that they 
might not be a burden to the people. It was in his 
peaceable reign that the Christians first began to 
build churches, which were demolished in the suc- 
ceeding persecution. Julius Maximinus, having 
opened to himself a way to the imperial throne, by- 
contriving the assassination of the best of the Ro- 
man emperors, began his reign by raising the sixth, 
general persecution against the Church, in the year 
b 



VJ2 U1STGRY OF TK2 

235. He was originally a shepherd of mean extrac- 
tion from Thrace, and a man of fierce manners and 
gigantic stature, and a monster of gluttony : he ea£ 
fifty pounds of meat in a day, and was so strong, that 
he could tear up trees by the roots with his hands, 
as historians assure us. When emperor, he put to 
death his most ancient friends, who could give an ac- 
count of his origin. Capitolinus says of him, u That 
•' never did a more cruel beast tread upon the earth." 
He raged violently against the Christians, particu- 
larly the bishops, pastors, and teachers, having or- 
dered some to be crucified, others to be dressed in 
the skins of beasts, and thus to be exposed to wild 
animals to be torn in pieces. 

After the death of Maximinus, the faithful en- 
joyed the sweets of peace for several years ; but this 
peace and tranquillity occasioned, conformably to 
the bent of human nature, a remissness and a sen- 
bible relaxation in their manners, as St. Cyprian 
complained. It enervated, in many, the watch- 
fulness and spirit of their holy profession, and open- 
eel a door to several converts, who, when their 
virtue was put to the test, had not courage to stand 
the trial. Nay, the virtue of some, who had stood 
the fiercest persecutions, began to melt away at the 
first rays of peace and prosperity : so dangerous 
are its flattering blandishments. Almighty God, 
therefore, to punish their sloth and neglect, and to 
revive their fervour, was pleased to try them in a 
fiery crucible, and to permit a most dreadful storm 
to be raised against the Church, in the year 249 : for 
Decius having usurped the empire, after causing 
the Emperor Philip to be killed by his soldiers at 
Verona, began his reign by raising the seventh ge- 
neral persecution, which he carried on with the 
utmost cruelty near three years. No sooner were 
his bloody edicts published, but the Christians were 
immediately driven from their houses, and stript of 
their estates. Whips and prisons, fires and wild 
beasts, scalded pitch and melted wax, sharp stakes 
and burning pincers, were the ordinary instruments 
used for their torments. Many ot all ages, ranks, 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 123 

and professions, were put to the most exquisite tor- 
tures : They were scourged, beaten, racked, and 
roasted ; their flesh was pulled off with burning 
pincers, and their sides burnt with torches. Some 
were beheaded with swords, others were run through 
with spears ; some were stretched on racks, others 
were hung up with weights at their feet, and tor- 
tured in this posture with more instruments of tor- 
ment than their bodies had limbs. Multitudes fled 
into the mountains, woods, and deserts, from this 
sctne of slaughter; of this number was St. Paul, 
the eminent Anchoret, who is styled the first Hermit. 
Others sought for refuge in the catacombs of Rome ; 
others concealed themselves in subterraneous cav- 
erns and dismal retreats, where they either perished 
by hunger and cold, or fell into the hands of the 
Saracens, and were reduced to a state of slavery 
worse than death itself. Nicephorus, the historian, 
declares, that it would be easier to count the sands 
of the sea, than to reckon up all the martyrs of this 
persecution. The very Pagans themselves beheld^ 
with admiration, these heavenly conflicts, and stood 
astonished at their meekness, patience, and courage, 
in the midst of all their sufferings; nay, some of 
them were so powerfully overcome by their exam- 
ple, that they suddenly declared themselves Chris- 
tians, and suffered death with joy for their profes- 
sion ; so that if a few apostatized in this terrible time 
of trial, the scandal they gave was amply repaired by 
the wonderful conversion of others, and by the uncon- 
querable virtue, constancy, and fidelity of thousands, 
who tired out their tormentors, smiling at them whilst 
they were raking in their wounds, and with unshak- 
en souls making open profession of Christ under the 
sharpest engines of execution. They had constant- 
ly before their eyes the divine pattern of their Lord 
and Saviour, and the heavenly recompense which 
awaited them after their combats. This glorious 
prospect animated their courage, and sweetened their 
torments. Inspired with inward joy, they said to 
themselves : The sufferings of this time are not wor- 
thy tfj be compared with the glory to come^ that shall 



124 HTSTO&Y OV l"FiB7 

he revealed i?i us. Rom. 8. 18. They congratulated 
•each other on the view of their approaching triumph, 
.saying, as St. Cyprian tells us, " The persecutor 
<* wrests from us our lands, but Heaven is opened 
" to us ; the enemy of Christ threatens, but Christ 
f 1 protects us. By killing us they deprive us of this 
fi world, but Paradise is offered us in its stead ; oup 
■" temporal life is extinguished, but changed into 
" eternal. " Decius being defeated in Thrace by the* 
Ooths, and succeeded by Gallus, the general of the 
army, who had betrayed him, this revolution gave 
some short respite to the Christians, but a great 
phigue, which ravaged several provinces of the em- 
pire, during twelve years, beginning in the year 250* 
alarmed the superstition of the new emperor so 
much, that he commanded sacrifice every where to 
be made to Apollo, for averting that scourge, and re- 
vived the persecution of Decius, in order to appease 
the anger of his false gods, by spilling the blood of 
the Christians. It was at this time that St. Hippo* 
IytU3 VuS ordered to be dragged zrd tern asunder by 
v/iid horses, at Ostia, where he expired uttering 
these words, " Lord, they tear my body, receive thou 
*' my soul." About the same time, St. Cassian, a 
Christian schoolmaster, was ordered to be stabbed 
to death with the penknives and styles, or iron writ- 
ing pencils, of his own scholars. Gallus continued 
to persecute the Christians, until he, and his col- 
league, Voiucianus. were slain in a battle at Terni, 
by iEmilianus, in the year 254. Three months after 
iEinilianus being killed by his own soldiers near 
Spoleto, Valerian, who commanded the army in 
Gaul, got possession of the Imperial Throne, and 
for some time gave peace to the Church ; but in the 
year 257 he commenced the eighth general persecu- 
tion, by the persuasion and artifice of Macrianus, 
an Egyptian magician, who advised him to sup- 
press Christianity, thereby to render the gods pro- 
pitious, and procure prosperity and success in his 
wars. Numbers of Christians were crowned with 
martyrdom in consequence of the cruel edicts pub- 
lished by this emperor, and executed with the UN 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 1?5 

most rigour for three years and a half, till he was 
taken prisoner by the Persians. The chief martyrs 
who suffered in his reign were St. Stephen, St. Six- 
tus, St. Laurence, St. Cyprian, St. Felix of Nola, 
St. Fructuosus, St. Saturninus, St. Marian, with se- 
veral illustrious confessors, who were chained and 
imprisoned, or condemned to work in the mines, 
and in Caesar's farms. St. Augustine informs us, 
that in the persecution of Valerian, one hundred and 
fifty-three Christians, who were detained in the pri- 
sons of Utica, suffered a glorious martyrdom there 
on the same day : for the Proconsul of Africa hav- 
ing gone from Carthage to Utica, and having order- 
ed a great pit of burning lime to be prepared in a 
field, and by it an altar of idols, with salt and hog's 
liver placed on it, ready for sacrifice, he caused all 
the aforesaid prisoners to be brought before him, 
and gave them their choice, either to be thrown in- 
to the pit of burning lime, or to offer sacrifice to 
the idols which were set by it. They unanimously 
chose the first, and were all consumed together in 
the furnace. Their ashes were afterwards taken 
out by the Christians, and as they made but one 
common mass, cemented with the lime, these mar- 
tyrs were called the White Mass, Gallienus, the 
son and successor of Valerian, restored peace to the 
Church, but as he led a life of debauchery and su- 
pine indolence, he became odious to the people, and 
was murdered in the year 268, and there rose up 
no less than thirty tyrants together, who assumed 
the title of emperors, and tore the empire to pieces 
by factions and divisions. 

Claudius II. the successor of Gallienus, a prince 
of moderation and wisdom, continued to suspend the 
edicts of former persecutors during the two years 
that he reigned. He was surnamed Gothicus, on 
account of his successful wars against the Goths, 
wherein it appears that 320,000 of them were slain, 
and two thousand of their ships were sunk. After 
his death me Emperor Aurelius raised the ninth 
general persecution, in the year 274. It is said of 
him, that he would have been a good doctor, if he 
L 2 



}9& HISTORY OF THE 

had not taken away too much blood. The princi- 
pal victims sent to Heaven in this persecution were 
Sti Felix, St. Mamas of Ccssarea, St, AgapeUiSj St. 
Sayinianus, St. Columba, See. 

The tenth and last general persecution was raised 
by Dioclesian, a soldier of fortune, and a man of mean 
extraction, who was proclaimed emperor by the army 
at Chalcedon, in the year 284, the emperor Cams, who 
had impiously assumed the title of a god, being kil- 
led by lightning, and his son, Numerianus Augus- 
tus, being cut off by the treachery of his uncle, 
A per. Dicclesian slew Aper, and by killing him 
accomplished a prediction which had formerly been 
delivered in his favour, that he should be an empe- 
ror when he killed an Aper, this word in Latin sig- 
nifying a wild boar. The following year he defeat- 
ed and slew Carious, the second son of Carus, and, 
after this victory, took the haughty name of Jovius y 
from Jupiter. But finding the empire too unwieldy a 
body to govern alone, and wishing, at the same time, 
to secure himself against the continual treasons of the 
soldiery, especially the praetorian guards, who, (lur- 
ing the last three hundred years, had murdered 
almost all their emperors, he chese Maximian for 
his partner and colleague in the empire, and honour- 
ed him with the title of Augustus Maximian as- 
sumed also the surname of Herculeus, from the 
false god Hercules. The two emperors named each 
an emperor of an inferior rank, under the title of 
Cxsars. Dicclesian chose Galerius Maximian for 
Uie East, and Maximian Herculeus pitched upon 
Constantius Chiorus for the West. Dioclesian usu- 
ally resided in the East at Nicomedia, and Galerius 
occupied Illvricum, and the places adjacent to the 
Euxine Sea. Maximian Herculeus reserved to him- 
self the rich provinces of Italy, Spain and Africa, 
and Constantius had Gaul and Britain, and the coun- 
tries this side the Alps. The first years of the reign 
of Dioclesian were tolerably favourable to the Chris- 
tians, though several, even then, suffered martyrdom 
by virtue of the former edicts, and by the natural 
cruelty of Maxircian Herculeus, who delighted in 



c nunc ii Of Christ. 12 7 

blood ; but in the beginning of the year 302, Galcrius 
prevailed upon Dioelesian to form a project utterly 
to extirpate the Christian name, and even began, by 
his own authority, to persecute the faithful within 
his own jurisdiction. In order to stir up Dioelesian 
the more, he procured some of his own creatures to 
set fire to the imperial palace at Nicomedia, that the 
Christians, according to the usual perverseness of 
the Heathens, might be accused of it; for, as Ter- 
tullian tells us, they conceived such prejudice and 
haired against the professors of Christianity, that 
every public calamity and misfoitune that befel the 
government was thiOAvn upon them. If the Temple 
of Daphnis was consumed by lightning from Hea- 
ven, the Christians were slandered and condemned 
as the incendiaries. If the Tiber overflowed; if the 
Nile watered not the plains ; if there were earth- 
quakes, famine, or plague, they would cry out. Hie 
Christians to the Lions. 

Dioelesian, not suspecting the imposture, gave 
orders, that all his domestics and dependents should 
be cruelly tortured in his presence, to oblige them 
to confess the supposed guilt, but all to no purpose, 
for the criminals lay concealed among the domestics 
of Galerius, who. in a fortnight after, caused the 
palace to be set on fire, and left Nicomedia the same 
day, protesting- that he went away through fear of 
being burnt alive by the Christians. The fire was 
stopped before it had done any great mischief, but 
it had the effect intended by the author of it, for 
Dioelesian, ascribing it to the Christians, resolved to 
keep no measures with them. His rage and resent- 
ment being now at the highest pitch, he vented 
them with the utmost cruelty upon the innocent, 
and published four edicts, commanding all Chris- 
tians to be put to death who should refuse to re- 
nounce their faith, or to sacrifice to the idols ; for 
the Devil, by his instruments, sought not so much 
to destroy the bodies of the servants of God by 
death, as their souls by sin. The first victims of 
Dioclesian's rage were the courtiers of his palace, 
the presidents of bis councils, the holy Bishop An- 



128 HISTORY OF THE 

ihimus, and the clergy of Nicomedia, whom he 
ordered to be seized, loaded with chains, and com- 
pelled by torments to sacrifice to the gods, which 
they refusing to do, they were beheaded, with all 
the persons belonging* to their families. The church 
of Nicomedia was levelled with the ground, the 
whole city was filled with desolation and slaughter, 
and all the books of the Scriptures that could be 
found were burnt. Judges were appointed in the 
temples to condemn to immediate death all who re- 
fused to sacrifice, and torments, till then unheard 
of, were invented. Altars were erected in the 
courts of justice and in the public offices, that all 
might be obliged to offer sacrifice before they could 
be admitted to plead. Idols were set up in the 
market places, at the corners of the streets, and at 
the public fountains, that the people might first 
offer incense to them, before they could be suffered 
to buy or sell any thing, to grind their corn, to 
draw water, or transact any business. Persons of 
every age and sex were burnt, not singly one by one f 
but, on account of their numbers, whole companies 
of them were burnt together, by setting fire round 
about them ; while others, being tied together in 
great numbers, were cast into the sea. Seventeen 
thousand Christians were massacred in one single 
day, as historians relate. 

Dioclcsian, not satisfied with all these cruelties, 
had his edicts published in other part* of the empire, 
and ordered all the churches to be every where 
demolished, the Scriptures to be burnt, the Chris- 
tians to be declared incapable of all honours and 
employments, to be deprived of their liberties and 
their right of voting, to be put out of the protec- 
tion of the law, and not to be allowed either to 
recover debts, or to sue for a reparation of any in- 
juries or damages done to them, whilst, on the other 
hand, all actions were to be received against them. 
The bloody edicts were sent from the East to Max- 
irnian, and to Constantius in the West. The former 
willingly obeyed them, but Constantius put no man 
to death on that account, though he suffered the 



e«URcn OF CHRIST I2& 

churches to be pulled down. He told the Christians 
he had in his army and household, thathe gave them 
their choice, either to sacrilice, or to lose their posts. 
Some preferring their temporal interest to their re- 
ligion, were tempted to offer sacrilice, but Con- 
stantius despised and discharged such apostates from 
his service, saying, that persons, so self-interested 
and treacherous to their God, would never be faith* 
ful to him. On the contrary, those who continued 
steadfast in their faith, he kept near his person, de- 
claring them worthy to be intrusted with the care 
of his person and empire. In the interim, his eldest 
son, Constantine, was kept at tne court of Dioclesian, 
as a hostage for his father's fidelity, and like another 
Moses, was brought up amidst the enemies of truth, 
whom he was one day to extirpate. 

In the other parts of the Roman Empire, the 
persecution was carried on with great violence by 
Dioclesian, Galerius, and Maximian. These cruel 
beasts, says Lactam ius, raged every where from 
East to West, if I had a hundred tongues, says 
that historian, I should not be able to recount all the 
different torments that were employed by them 
against the Christians. The. barbarities they ex- 
ercised, exceed all description. They deluged the 
Roman Empire with an ocean of blood. The un- 
heard of torments they made use of for the space 
of ten years were innumerable, says Eusebius — 
Some Christians were broiled to death on grid-irons 
and frying pans. Some were squeezed in a press, 
until their veins, sinews, and fibres, burst. Some 
were hung up with their heads downwards, and 
suffocated by slow fires. Some were slain by break- 
ing their legs and chopping off their hands and feet. 
Some were sawed in two. Some had their eyes and 
teeth pulled out. Some were dipt in melting lead 
or scalding oil. Some were devoured by dogs, bears, 
lions, and other wild beasts. Some were beheaded ; 
others had sharp reecls thrust under their nails. 
Some were cruelly scourged and beaten with clubs 
and balls of lead. Some had their flesh torn off 
with pincers, or furrowed and racked off with pieces 



^130 „ HISTORY OF THE 

of broken pots, iron hooks, and nails. Some were 
exposed to the sun, and rubbed over with honey, 
that they might be stung and tortured by bees and 
wasps Some were sent in chains to work in the 
mines. Some were delivered over to archers to be 
shot to death with arrows. Some were sewed up in 
sacks, or leathern bags, with scorpions, serpents, 
vipers, snakes, and other reptiles, and thrown into 
the sea. Some were confined in infectious dun- 
geons, strewed with nails and broken glass. Those 
who survived were called Co?ifessors^ because they 
had courage to confess the name of Christ before 
the judges. A populous city in Phrygia, consisting 
all of Christians, w&s surrounded by a large body 
of soldiers, who set fire to it; and men, women, 
and children, were all consumed in the flames. In 
the West, the sanguinary tyrant Maximum, as St. 
Jerom calls him, having crossed the Alps with his 
army, on an expedition into Gaul, and having halt- 
ed at Octodurum, then a considerable city on the 
Rhone, above the lake of Geneva, now a village 
called Martignac in the Valais, issued out an order 
that the whole army should join in offering sacrifice 
to the gods for the success of their expedition — 
The Theban legion, consisting of about six thousand 
six hundred Christians from Thebais, or Upper 
Egypt, hereupon withdrew itself, with Maurice, 
Exuperius, arid Candidus, the captain and principal 
officers, and encamped at some distance from the 
main body of the army, that they might not join in 
the idolatrous worship. Maximian sent th;*m re- 
peated orders to return to the camp and offer sacri- 
iice ; and upon their constant and unanimous refu- 
sal, he commanded them to be decimated. Every 
tenth man was then put to death, according as the 
lot fell, the rest exhorting one another in the interim 
to perseverance. After the first decimation, a se- 
cond was commanded, and the emperor sent fresh 
threats, that if they persisted in their disobedience, 
not a man among them should escape death. The 
soldiers declared, that w they would rather suffer 
? all extremities than do any thing contrary to their 



I1UHC II OF C1IHIST. 131 

M religion. They humbly remonstrated to Maxi«* 
" mian, that they were his soldiers, but at the same 
M time, that they were servants of the true God. 
u We owe you, said they, military service and 
" obedience; but we cannot renounce him, who is 
u our Creator and Master, and also yours, even 
11 whilst you reject him. In all things, which are 
M not against his law, Ave most willingly obey you, 
'• as we have done hitherto. We readily oppose 
M all your enemies, wherever they are, but we can- 
" not dip our hands in the blood of the innocent. 
11 We have taken an oath to God, before we took 
f< one to you ; you can place no confidence in our 
M second oath, should we violate the first. We 
u confess God the Father, Author of all things, 
" and his Son, Jesus Christ. Neither the extremi- 
44 ty to which we are reduced, nor any provoca- 
u tion hath tempted us to revolt. We have arms in 
" our hands, but we do not resist, because we had 
t* rather die innocent than live by any sin." This 
legion was well armed, and might have sold their 
lives very dear. But they had learned to give to 
God what is God's, and to Caesar what is Caesar's, 
and they showed their courage more in dying for 
their faith, than in the most hazardous enterprises. 
Maximian having no hopes of overcoming their 
constancy, commanded his whole army to surround 
them, and cut them to pieces. They made no re- 
sistance, but dropping their arms, suffered themselves 
to be butchered like innocent sheep, without open- 
ing their mouths, except mutually to encourage one 
another ; and not one out of so great a number failed 
in courage to the last. The ground was covered 
with their dead bodies, and streams of blood flowed 
on every side. 

Such was the genera! disposition and firmness of 
the Christians under the sharpest trials and most 
violent persecutions. Nothing could shake their 
constancy, or prevail on them to offer sacrifice to 
the idols. For one that prevaricated or denied his 
faith, in the heat of persecution, or that lost his 
courage when subdued by torture and almost torn to 



1S3 HISTORY OF VHfi 

pieces, or that burnt incense in the temples, or that 
procured at a certain price certificates and attesta- 
tions from the Pagan magistrates, of having com- 
plied with the imperial edicts, thousands sealed their 
faith with the last drop of their blood. They de- 
spised death in its most terrifying shapes, and even 
stared it in the face with joy, regarding it as the 
gate to everlasting happiness. Far from retaliating 
injuries, they prayed for their persecutors, and ne- 
ver used the least violence against those who treated 
them with cruelty. They were so numerous, as to 
be capable of forming great armies, yet they suf- 
fered themselves to be massacred, rather than rise 
tip in arms against their princes and rulers; for 
they had learned from the Apostles and their suc- 
cessors, that the powers established by God are to 
be respected even in the persons of wicked men.— 
They said, as St. Justin and Tertullian inform us : 
our hopes are not fixed on the present world, and 
3 therefore we make no resistance to the executioner 
" that comes to strike us. We adore one only God, 
" but in all other things we cheerfully obey the 
* ruling powers. We pray to God that he may 
f£ grant to the emperors a long life, a peaceable 
" reign, safety at home, victorious arms, a faithful 
u senate, virtuous subjects, universal peace, and 
" every thing that a man and emperor can desire."*' 
Most flourishing was the condition of the Roman 
empire, till the emperors drew the sword of perse- 
cution against those, whose prayers were the pro- 
tection of the state. They flattered themselves that 
they would be able to extinguish the Christian nam% 
and to destroy the Church, root and branch. For 
this end, they bore down against her, with all their 
weight, but all their efforts proved abortive, and 
were as vain as the winds and rain against a house, 
that is built up©n a rock. They had no other effect, 
but to throw a gloomy veil over the Church for a 
while, but that being once removed, she appeared 
-with new strength, and like the sun emerging from 
an eclipse, she shone forth with greater lustre and 
spread her influence over the whole earth* The 



CHURCH OF CHRIST* 133 

more her children were persecuted, and the more of 
them were slain with the sword, the more they in- 
creased and multiplied, like unto a vine, as St. Jus- 
tin Swtys, which by being pruned and cut close, shoots 
forth new suckers and bears a greater multitude of 
fruit 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The Persecutors of the Church overtaken in thit 
Life by the avenging Jusiice of God. 

WHiLST the Church of Christ increased by the 
very means that were employed for her extermina- 
tion, hop enemies and persecutors were generally 
overtaken by the wrath of Heaven, even in this world, 
and fell victims to Divine Justice in the end. 

King Agrippa, the grandson of Herod, a/id first 
prince who drew the swerd of persecution against 
the Church, was eaten up by worms, and expired in 
the most exquisite torments, and in all the miseries 
that can be expressed or imagined. Nero miserably 
perished under the public resentment of Ike whole 
empire, and the universal detestation of all mankind. 
The Roman senate having pronounced sentence of 
death against him, he fled into the country, and after 
attempting his own life, he prevailed on another to 
dispatch him with a dagger. Domitian was mur- 
dered by his own domestics, and after his death, his 
statues were pulled down, his name was erased out 
of ail the public registers, and ordered never more 
to be mentioned. In the days of Trajan, Adrian, 
and Aurelius, the Roman empire was visibly 
scourged with plagues and famine, dreadful earths 
quakes and inundations. Severus and his vicious 
sons Caracalla and Geta. fell into sad disasters, and 
their whole family was extinguished. Julius Maxi- 
mums and his son were killed by the soldiers at 
Aquileia, their heads were sent to Rome, and their 
bodies were left to be devoured by dogs and birds of 
prey. Decius ran with despair into a deep bog and 
perished miserably. Gailus was killed the year af- 
M 



13<* HISTORY OF THE 

ter he commenced persecutor. Valerian was taken 
prisoner by the Persians, and led about in triumph, 
louded with chains, and clad in purple, and all the 
Imperial ornaments. And as often as Sapor 1. king 
of Persia, had occasion to mount on horseback, or to 
go into his chariot, he made use of Valerian for a 
footstool, or horseblock, ordering the unhappy em- 
peror to stoop down, and setting- his foot upon his 
neck or back, as a step to get up. Valerian, who 
had robbed many others of their liberty, lived seven 
years in this infamous slavery. After his death, his 
skin was flayed off his body, pickled with salt, tinc- 
tured with a red colouring, and hung up as a trophy 
in one of the Persian temples, to be shown to the 
Roman ambassadors whenever they should come into 
Persia, that they might remember Valerian's fall, 
and learn from it not to presume too much upon 
their own strength. Aurelian, that haughty, proud, 
and insolent prince, whom the fortune of war 
had raised from a barbarian s4ave to the imperial 
throne, and who, as Aurelius Victor tells us, was the 
first among the Roman emperors that wore a diadem, 
drew down the Divine displeasure on himself, and 
•was assassinated by his own secretary, and cut off 
the face of the earth in the beginning of his bloody 
persecution, after leading Zenobia, queen of the 
East, a captive to Rome, in triumph. Nothing pros- 
pered with Dioclesian, from the time he began his 
•war against the Church. Until then he had done 
many gallant actions, which merited a triumph, and 
appeared very unwilling to adopt violent measures, 
foreseeing that the peace of the empire would be 
thereby disturbed to an high degree. But Satan 
hurried him on blindly to destruction, and inspired 
him with the most rancorous hatred against the 
Christians. At length, intimidated by the power 
and threats of his favourite Galerius, he resigned to 
him the purple at Nicomedia. His colleague, Max- 
imian Herculeus. made the like abdication at Milan, 
and was compelled to resign the imperial purple to 
Constantius Chloius, after which he hanged himself 
in despair. Victor the historian relates, that Dio- 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 1.'35 

clcsian put an end to his miserable life by poison 
He lived to see his wife Prisqa Octavia, and his 
daughter Valeria pulicly beheaded by Licinius, and 
their bodies thrown into the sea. He had also the 
mortification to see the Christian religion protected 
by law, i\\A to learn, that his statues had been pulled 
down by Constantine, who was created emperor on 
the demise of his father, Cofi stand us Chlorus, who 
died at York, in Great Britain, in the year 306. Lac- 
tantius says, that Dioclesian seeing himself de- 
spised by the whole world, and loaded with guilt and 
disgrace, was in perpetual uneasiness, and could 
neither eat nor sleep. He was heard to sigh and 
groan continually, often with tears in his eyes, some- 
times tumbling himself on his bed, and sometimes 
on the ground. The hand of God was likewise very 
visible upon the abominable Galerius, who had taken 
so much pains to instigate Dioclesian against the 
Christians. He was seized with a grievous and ter- 
rible disease. Being extremely fat and unwieldy, 
the huge mass of his flesh was overrun with putre- 
faction, and swarmed with vermin. An ulcer con- 
sumed the lower parts cf his belly, and laid open his 
very bowels ; and the stench that came from him 
was not to be borne, even by his own servants, as 
Eusebius relates. His pains were so violent, that 
he roared out, and often attempted to kill himself, 
In these agonies he seemed to acknowledge the hand 
that scourged him, and in order to avert it, he pub- 
lished an edict in favour of the Christians. But 
Heaven did not relent, and his distemper increasing, 
put a period to his wicked life in a few days. Max- 
entius, the son of Maximian Herculeus, was routed in 
a battle he fought with Constantine, on the banks 
of the Tyber, near the bridge Milvius, now called 
Ponte Mole, two miles from Rome. Constantine's 
army being inferior in number, he earnestly implored 
the protection of one supreme God, and was encou- 
raged by a miraculous vision, for after his prayer, a 
little after mid-day, as Eusebius relates, when he 
was traversing the country with part of his forces, 
he saw in the sky a cross of light, with this inscrip- 



136 HISTORY OF THE 

lion, "In this shalt thou conquer," and he was ih r 
spired to make a representation of that cross, which 
Jbe had seen, and to use it for an ensign in battle. 
The emperor accordingly made the famous banner 
^called Labarum, and effectually under its auspices, 
on the 28th of October, 312, he gained a complete 
victory over Max^ntius, who in his flight wasjdrown- 
ed in the Tyber, by the breaking of the bridge of 
boats, which he had caused to be thrown over that 
river. On the same day Constantine entered Rome 
in triumph, on which occasion, the Senate ordered 
<hat magnificent triumphal arch to be built, which is 
still extant, at the head of the Appian Road, behind 
the famous amphitheatre, A statue was also erect- 
ed in honour of him in one of the public places of 
the city, where he appeared holding a cross in his 
hand instead of a lance ; and he caused this inerip- 
tion to be made on the pedestal : " By this salutary 
" sign, the true mark of courage, 1 have delivered 
" your city from the yoke of tyranny, and restored 
iC the Senate and people of Rome to their ancient 
*< glory. " Euseb. in Vit. Const. 

Maxi minus D<tia, the nephew and successor of 
Galerius, who being upon the point of engaging 
with Licinius, made a vow to Jupiter, that if he 
gained the victory, he would exterminate the very 
name of Christianity, was totally defeated near By- 
zantium, by a much smaller army than his own, and 
compelled to repeal bis edicts against the Christians. 
Upon which he threw away his imperial robe, and 
fled in the habit of a slave into Asia. Shortly after 
he was struck with a dreadful disorder not unlike 
that of Galerius, and expired in excessive pain, rage, 
and despair. He rolled himself upon the ground, 
and attempted different times to make away with 
liimself. For this purpose he ate and drank to great 
excess, and took poison, which burnt him inwardly, 
and reduced him to such a condition, that he ate 
common earth, and looked like a withered and dried 
skeleton. His pains became so acute and intolera- 
ble, that he ran his head against the wall with such 
violence that his eyes started out. He had put out 



CHURCH OP CHRIST. 13 T 

the eyes of many Christians, and now by a just judg- 
ment he lost his own sight, and began to acknow- 
ledge that he deserved what he suffered for his cru- 
elty, and for the insults which he had committed 
against Jesus Christ, as Eusebius relates, 1. 9 Hist, 
c. 10. He likewise adds, that all the rulers of the 
provinces, who had acted under him, and imbrued 
their hands in the innocent blood of the Christians, 
met with an exemplary punishment, after being per- 
mitted for a while to exercise their tyrannical power. 
At the death of Maximinus Daia, in the year 313, 
Licinius, an Officer, with whom Galerius had con- 
tracted an intimacy, and whom he had declared his 
colleague and emperor, remained master in the 
East. He joined with Constantine in a league, in 
favour of Christianity, superseding ail persecution, 
and married his sister Constantia. He was a worth- 
less and stupid prince, who could not read or write 
his own name, hated all men of learning, and was in 
his heart a foe to religion, though to please Constan- 
tine, he pretended himself to be ready to become a 
Christian ; but at last he threw off the mask, revived 
the persecution and renewed the war he had before 
waged with Constantine. Constantine, on his part 
having made the necessary preparations, attacked 
and defeated him near Adrianople, almost thirty- 
four thousand of his troops being left dead on the 
spot. Licinius making a second stand near Chaicc~ 
don, ordered his soldiers not to-attack Constantine's 
army on the side where the Labarum or great stand- 
ard of the cross was, nor to look towards it, con- 
fessing that it was fatal to him, as Eusebius affirms^ 
victory every where following it. In this second 
battle, out of one hundred and thirty thousand men, 
scarce three thousand of Licinius 5 army escaped. 
Being at length vanquished both by sea and land, he 
was allowed to retire to Thessalonica, where he was 
put to death, in the year 324, because he still medi- 
tated new disturbances. Lactantius tells us, that 
not only all the aforesaid persecutors were crushed 
by a superior power, but that their whole race was 
extirpated and cut off the face of the earth. So 
M 2 



138 ^ISTOKY OF THE 

true is it what St. Cyprian says : " Never do we sec 
* c the Christian name persecuted, but the Divine verf- 
" geance soon follows," By a just judgment of 
God, the swords of the persecutors fell in the end 
upon their own criminal heads, and the Church of 
Christ, which they had endeavoured to exterminate, 
brightened only in the flames of persecution. On 
the other hand, the whole system of idolatry was 
shaken to the very foundation, and ready to tumble 
to pieces. It received a deadly blow by the acces* 
sion of Constantine to the Imperial Throne, while 
Christianity began to triumph over every obstruo 
tion which his Pagan predecessors had opposed to 
it. When he reigned sole emperor, he put a period 
to the persecutions, and gave full liberty to the 
Christian Religion, both in the East and West ; 
and hence is dated the remarkable epocha of the 
peace of the Church, after three hundred years of 
sufferings. 



CHAPTER XV. 

The Church of the fourth Century. 

THE Chair of St. Peter was filled in this cciS- 
Uiry by Marcellus, Eusebius, Melchiades, Sylves-- 
ter, Marcus, Julius, Liberius, Damascus, Siricius, 
and Anastasius. The Church of Christ never 
suffered more violent assaults, never gained more 
glorious victories, never sent more saints to Hea- 
ven than under the government of those Pontiffs. 
St. Marcellus succeeded Marcellinus in the year 
308, after the holy see had been vacant for three 
years and a half. By enforcing the penitential ca- 
rions, and for his severity against a certain apostate, 
he drew upon himself the contradictions of some 
tepid and refractory Christians, and was banished 
by the tyrant Maxe'ntius. St. Eusebius succeeded 
him in the Pontificate, and strenuously maintained 
the discipline of the Church, in the rigorous ob- 
servance of the penitential canons with regard to 
penitent sinners, especially those who had denied 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 



13* 



ilic faith in the persecution. He was banished into 
Sicily by Maxentius, but called thence by God 
to eternal rest. He was succeeded by St. Mel- 
chiades, or Miltiades, a zealous pastor, a true son 
of peace, and a true father of Christians, as St. 
Augustine called him, on account of the modera- 
tion he used in the Council, which he held in the 
Lateran Palace, and in which he acquitted Cecilian, 
successor to Mensurius in the see of Carthage, of 
the charge brought against him, and condemned 
Donatus, Bishop of Casa Nigra, in Numidia, and 
author of the Donatist schism, which blazed then 
with great fury in Africa. St. Melchiades dying in 
January 314, St. Sylvester was exalted to the Pon- 
tificate, and the same year commissioned four 
legates, two priests, and two deacons, to represent 
him at the Great Council of the Western Church 
held at Aries, in which the schism of the Donatists, 
and the heresy of the Quartodecimans, were con- 
demned, and the decisions confirmed by St. Sylves- 
ter, and published to the whole Church. His great 
age not permitting him to go in person to the Ge- 
neral Council of Nice, which was assembled against 
Arianism, in the year 325, he sent his legates 
Osius, Vito, and Vincentius to assist at it in his*, 
place. He greatly advanced religion by a punctual 
discharge of all the duties of his exalted station 
during the space of twenty-one years and eleven 
months, and died on the 31st of December, 335. 
After his death, St. Marcus was elected, and having 
governed the Church only eight months, he was 
succeeded by Julius, who was a man of extraordi- 
nary genius and solid judgment, apostolic zeal aad 
vigour, tempered with charity and meekness. He 
wrote an excellent letter to the Oriental Bishops, 
which Tillemont calls one of the first monuments 
of ecclesiastical antiquity. Julius governed the 
Church, fifteen years, two months, and six days. 
His successor was Liberius, who, by some writers, 
is excluded from the catalogue of Popes, because 
he is said to have subscribed the condemnation of 
St. Athanasius, and a formulary, or creed, which 



140 HISTORY QF THE 

had been framed by the Brians at Surmium ; but 
the formulary which he signed was the first confes- 
sion of Sirmium, which was not heretical in it& 
terms, though the word Cojisubstantial was omitted 
in it. Liberius, indeed, sunk under the hardships of 
a two years' exile, at Beraea in Thrace, and his re- 
solution was shaken by the continual solicitations of 
DemophilusandFortunatian, two temporizing Ariau 
Bishops. He was so far softened by listening to 
flatteries and suggestions, to which he ought to have 
stopped his ears with horror, that he yielded to the 
snare laid for him, and fell by a prevarication and 
notorious scandal, but not by heresy. The fall of 
so great a prelate, and so illustrious a confessor, is 
a terrifying example of human weakness, which no 
one can tall to mind, without trembling for himself. 
St. Peter fell by a presumptuous confidence in his 
own strength and resolution, that we may learn that 
every one stands only by humility. Liberius, how- 
ever, speedily imitated the repentance of the Prince 
of the Apostles, and had no sooner recovered his 
see, which he had spontaneously resigned to St. 
Felix, who died a martyr in the year 359, than he 
again loudly declared himself the patron of justice 
and truth, and anathematized all who did not con- 
fess the Son like to the Father in all things. He con- 
demned and annulled the decrees of the council of 
Rimini, by a letter which he wrote to these Bishops, 
mentioned by Siricius, Ep. ad Himer, Liberius 
died in the year 366, and St. Da'uasus, who was 
Arch-deacon of the Roman Church, and then sixty 
years old, was chosen Pontiff, and ordained in the 
Basilic of Lucina, otherwise called St. Laurence's. 
Soon after Ursinus, who could not bear that St. 
Damasus should be preferred before him, raised a 
schism, and got together a crowd of disorderly and 
seditious people in the Liberian Basilic, now called 
St. Mary Major, and persuaded Paul, Bishop of 
Tibur, now Tivoli, to ordain him Bishop of Rome, 
contrary to the ancient canons. Juventius, prasfect 
of Rome, banished Ursinus, and some others of his 
party. Seven priests, who adhered to him, were 



CHURCH OF CHRIST". l4i 

seized to be carried into exile, but were secured 
by their partisans and carried to the Liberia!* 
Basilic. The people that sided with St. Damasus 
oame together, unknown to him, with swords and 
dubs, besieged the Basilic to deliver those men up 
to the Praefect, and a fight ensued, in which one 
hundred and thirty seven persons were killed, as 
St. Augustine relates. The general council of 
Chalcedon styles Damasus, for his piety, the ho- 
nour and glory of Rome. Theodoret says he was 
illustrious by his holy life, and places him at the 
head of the famous doctors of divine grace in the 
Latin Church. He filled the chair of St. Peter 
eighteen years and two months, and died near foui v 
score years of age. 

St. Siricius sat 13 years. After his death, St. 
Anastasius was raised to the Pontificate, and ac- 
quired a high reputation for his virtue and abilities. 
St. Jerom calls him a man of an holy life, and en- 
dued with an Apostolic solicitude and zeal. He 
exerted himself in stopping the progress of Ori- 
genism, and governed the Church three years and 
ten days, with great prudence. The whole power 
of the Roman empire had been exerted in the pre** 
ceding centuries agninst the Church with the utmost 
fury, but was not able to stop its progress, much 
less to extinguish it. The flock of Christ grew by 
ks own losses, and gathered strength from the most 
violent persecutions. The Almighty, who pre- 
scribes limits to the sea in its greatest rage, set 
bounds to the power of the Pagan Emperors, and, 
as St. Augustine says, conquered the world, not by 
the sword, but by the cross ; and, by a wonderful 
change, made its enemies become its votaries and 
protectors. He was pleased to make Constantine 
the Great triumph by that sacred sign, that he might 
know the hand by which he was raised to the im- 
perial throne. This pious Prince immediately re- 
called the Christians, who had been banished by 
his predecessors, and ordered their places of worship 
to be restored to them. He built and endowed many 
churches -at his own expense : among those Euse- 



142 HISTORY OF THE 

bias mentions ^ most magnificent Church at Nied- 
media; and another at Antioch, in the form of an 
octagon, which, from its rich ornaments, was called 
the Golden Church. He founded the great Church 
of St. Sophia at Constantinople, and built in the 
same city the beautiful Church of the Twelve 
Apostles, which, according to Eusebius, " had all 
il its walls covered with marble, its roof overlaid 
i{ with gold, and the outside covered with gilded 
4i brass, instead of tiles." He founded the Church 
of our Saviour, on Mount Caelio in Rome, now called 
the Church of St. John Lateran, it being built upon 
the spot where the palace of Late ran us, a rich 
Roman senator, formerly stood. Within the area 
©f this Church he erected a Chapel, dedicated in 
honour of Sn John the Baptist, with a second altar 
in honour of St. John the Evangelist. Upon the 
front of this chapel, called the Baptisterion, which 
is a fine structure, and most richly ornamented, was 
placed an image of St. John the Baptist, which 
caused the whole Church to be generally named the 
Church of St. John Lateran. This Church is styled 
the head, the mother, and the mistress of all Churches, 
and was the usual residence of the Bishop of Rome, 
till Gregory IX. returning from Avignon, began to 
reside at St. Peter's in the Vatican. Constantino 
also, desirous of expressing his veneration for the 
holy places which had been honoured and sanctified 
by the presence and sufferings of our Blessed Re- 
deemer on earth, came to a resolution to build a 
magnificent Church in Jerusalem, near Mount Cal- 
vary, and other Churches in several parts of Pales- 
tine, to which his devout mother, St. Helen, under** 
took a journey, when she was near eighty years old, 
in order to find the identical cross on which Christ 
suffered for our sins. Having succeeded herein, the 
pious empress ordered two stately churches to be 
erected : one at Bethlehem, where our Blessed Sa- 
viour was born, and another on Mount Olivet, from 
whence he had ascended into Heaven— See Sozomen, 
St. Pauiinus, Suipicius, Severus, Rufin, and other 
Historians. The cross was then transferred, as St. 



CHURCH OF CURSIT. 145 

Augustine speaks, from the places of execution to 
the foreheads of emperors and kings, and deemed 
the most valuable pearl in their crowns. Constan- 
tine forbid it to be used in the punishment of male- 
factors in any part of his dominions, which has been 
observed ever since throughout all Christendom. 
He ordered the sign of the cross to be stamped on 
his coin, on his helmet, on the banners of each le- 
gion, and on the shields of his soldiers. He chose 
fifty men of the stoutest and most religious amongst 
his guards, to carry, by turns, the standard, called 
the Imperial Labarum, before his army. He like- 
vise caused the sign of the cross to be erected in 
the chief square of the new city, that was called Con- 
stantinople, from his own name. In the year 33u he 
removed his imperial seat to this city, and divided 
the Roman Empire into two parts, the Eastern and 
the Western, for which reason the Imperial Eagle 
is represented with two heads, one denoting the East, 
and the other the West, according to the following 
verse : 

Picta biceps aguila y hinc Occasum, hinc adsfiicit 
Ortum. 

By this two-headed Eagle understand. 
That East and West obey our high command. 

" The Church," says Eusebius, " -was then in a 
» ; flourishing condition, and the faithful employed 
€{ themselves in all kind of holy exercises with com- 
" fort and joy ; nor was there the least danger to 
w be feared from any foreign enemy." The sena- 
tors and most distinguished characters in the em- 
pire, encouraged by the example of the Emperor 
and his pious mother, Helena, the Empress, openly 
professed Christianity ; and the faithful were multi- 
plied so wonderfully through the whole extent of the 
Roman dominions, that it was doubted whether the 
Christians or the Heathens were the more numerous 
in the Roman world. The Church shone like a 
bright sun over most of the known world, and daily 
acquired new splendour ; but this sunshine of peace 
vva's of n© rery considerable duration j the blessing 



144 history otf the 

of so happy a condition was more than could be 
expected to last very long, as Christ had fixed that 
his disciples should follow him, not by a life of 
prosperity and ease, but through the thorny roads 
of tribulation. This situation was too flattering 
not to raise the envy of Satan, who saw his idols 
fallen into disrepute, and his temples deserted: he 
was no longer able to keep mankind in the old dark 
road of Pagan superstition, or to persecute the 
Church by Heathenish emperors, who no more ex- 
isted ; wherefore he shifted his ground, and contriv- 
ed a means to persecute her by the hands of her own 
rebellious children when she was delivered from her 
foreign enemies : in short, he invented a stratagem 
to deceive the unwary, under the disguise of the 
Christian name itself. This stratagem, says St. Cy- 
prian, vyas the heresy of Arius, and the schism of 
Donatus, which he employed as his instruments to 
subvert faith, to corrupt truth, to dissolve unity, to 
tear the seamless garment of Christ in pieces, and 
to lay waste the Church, by exciting her own bowels 
to rise up and make war upon her in a furious man- 
ner. 

Arius, a priest of Alexandria, in Egypt, was well 
versed in profane literature, was a subtle dialectician, 
had an exterior show of virtue, and an insinuating 
behaviour, but was a monster of pride, vain glory, and 
ambition, which easily betray men into the most fa- 
tal errors ; for whoever is possessed with these vices 
is fond of his own conceits, self-confident, and obsti- 
nate, and will endeavour to shut up all the avenues 
of light, however strong the day-light of evidence 
may be in itself. Arius concealed a heart full of de- 
ceit under an affected modesty ; and, pretending an 
holy zeal for discipline, joined Meletius, Bishop of 
Lycopolis, in the beginning of a pernicious schism, 
which he had formed, and which took its name from 
him, and disturbed the Church of Egypt for many 
years. After the death of St. Peter and St. Achillas, 
Arius had the ambition to aspire to the see of Alex- 
andria, but finding himself disappointed by the elec- 
tion of St. Alexander, he became his mortal enemy ; 



CHFRCH «F CHRIST. 145 

and as Alexander's life and conduct were irreproach- 
able, all his endeavours to oppose him were levelled 
at the orthodox doctrine of that holy prelate ; hence 
his jealousy stimulated him to broach anew blasphe- 
mous system of doctrine, which denied the divinity 
of Christ our Redeemer. He propagated the poi- 
son of his heresy by his Thalia, or poems and songs, 
which he composed and taught the lower class of 
people to sing, and even found means to gain over 
to his party twenty-two Oriental Bishops, among 
whom was the crafty Eusebius of Nicomedia, his 
warm friend and principal patron. On the other 
hand, the Donatist schism disturbed the peace of the 
Church in the six Roman provinces of Africa. At 
first there was only question about the legality of the 
election of Cecilian, Bishop of Carthage, and succes- 
sor to Mensurius, who had been falsely accused of 
having delivered up the sacred scriptures to be burnt, 
in the time of persecution. Donatus, Bishop of 
Cassa Nigra, in Numidia, pretended that Cecilian's 
ordination was illegal, and most unreasonably sepa- 
rated himself from his communion. The affair be- 
ing carried to the Apostolic see, Donatus refused to 
submit to the decision, and was joined by the jealous 
enemies of Cecilian, especially by a powerful lady 
called Lucilla, who was personally piqued against 
that zealous prelate, whilst he was Archdeacon of 
the Church of Carthage, because she had received 
from him a rebuke, and wanted humility and discre- 
tion, without which the show of piety is only a sha- 
dow and pharisaical hypocrisy. She was accustom- 
ed every morning, before she received the body and 
blood of our Lord, to kiss the bone of an unknown 
dead man, whom she pretended to have been a mar- 
tyr, but who was not, or at least had not been, ac- 
knowledged such by the Pastors of the Church ; for, 
to prevent abuses and superstition, it was always a 
necessary law in the Church, that no private persons 
■should be allowed to pay to relics the honour due to 
those of martyrs, without a moral assurance of their 

authenticity, or without the Bishop's approbation 

When these rules of prudence are observed, even 
N 



146 History of the 

though a mistake should happen, it is of the same 
nature as if a person, by inculpable inadvertence, 
kissed some other book instead of the Bible, and 
the primary object of such religious actions, which 
is to glorify God in his Saints, -is always certain, 
whatever mistakes may happen in facts, or such like 
human means, which excite our devotion. Cecilian, 
in quality of Archdeacon, thought it his duty to 
put Lucilla in mind of her fault, but, through the 
jnist of her passions, she was not able to discern 
the charity of this just and necessary correction. 
Her resentment for this pretended affront seemed to 
have no bounds when she saw Cecilian raised to the 
Archiepiscopal Chair of Carthage, By her money 
and interest she protected and abetted a faction that 
was formed against him by some competitors, who, 
being discontented at his preferment, resolved to 
carry matters to the last extremity, and set aside his 
election, upon no other pretence but the foolish plea 
that he admitted the penitent Traditors to his com- 
munion, and thereby defiled the sanctity of the Catho- 
lic Church. Donatus and his abettors raised altar 
against altar, and established another Bishop in Car- 
thage. Their party at length became so numerous, 
that they counted five hundred Bishops of their own 
faction, and so furious, that they seized on the 
Churches of the Catholics by force of arms, drove 
away the lawful bishops, broke down the altars and 
sacred vessels, and forcibly re-baptized such as had 
received baptism out of their communion. Thus a 
small spark in the beginning gave rise to a flame of 
altercations and contentions, tumults and commo- 
tions, and blazed up in process of time into a great 
lire. To put a stop to the unhappy disputes that 
were raised by the Arians, and divided the Church, 
Constantine the emperor zealously concurred in as- 
sembling a General Council, this being the only re- 
medy adequate to the growing evil, and capable of re- 
storing peace to the Church. By letters of respect 
he invited the Bishops from all parts of the world to 
the city of Nice, in Bithynia, and defrayed their ex- 
penses. They assembled in the Imperial Palace on 



CHURCH OF ClIRIri. 147 

I9lii of June, in the year 32 5. The Emperor 
entered the Council without guards, nor would he sit 
till he was requested, as Eusebius says. This was the 
first general Council, and it consisted of three hun- 
dred and eighteen Bishops, eminent both for their 
piety and learning. The renowned Osius, Bishop of 
Corduba, in Spain, presided thereat, in the name of 
St. Sylvester, by whom he was commissioned. The 
fathers thus assembled, in imitation of the Apostles 
on a similar occasion, examined, refuted, and pro- 
scribed the doctrine of Arius, and cut him off from 
the communion of the faithful. They ascertained 
the Catholic Faith, and drew up a solemn profession, 
known by the name of The Nicene Creed, wherein, 
10 exclude all the subtleties of the Arians, they de- 
clared, in terms that left no subterfuge for error, no 
roomfor heresy to play in, i 'he JSon con substantial to the 
Father. Divine providence W£S pleased to raise up 
at this very juncture a great number of bishops and 
learned doctors, like so many illustrious champions,, 
to support his own cause with becoming dignity, to 
defend the revealed truths of faith with intrepidity, 
and to set Christian morality in the clearest point of 
view. They employed their pens and exerted their 
zeal in combating the impious tenets of the Arians, 
and in detecting the slanders and calumnies by which 
they imposed en the Emperor Constantino, and the 
different artifices whereby they endeavoured to elude 
the decision of the Council of Nice, and to diffuse 
their contagious doctrine among the people, in am- 
biguous professions of faith, couched in equi- 
vocal terms. The great St. Ath^nash;s, Bishop of 
Alex. . ed in the midst of this scene, and bore 

a great share in it, having been five times banished 
from his see, and five times recalled. He had em- 
ployed all the power which his authority put in his 
hands, to bring back the Meletian schismatics in 
Egypt to the unity of the Church. Their opposition 
d the Allans to court their friendship, and per- 
suade them to enter into a solemn league of iniquity 
together, against St. Athanasius, though they were 
in other respects at variance with each other. This 
is the ii:s, who, though divided in 



I 48 «ISTORY OF THE 

other things, dissemble their private animosities, 
and enter into a mutual confederation, and cabal 
against the truth ; not unlike Herod and Pilate, who 
forgot their enmity to unite and agree in persecuting 
Christ. Tiie Aiians thus united with the Meletians, 
and seconded by Eusebius, set their engines at work 
to calumniate and impeach St. Athanasius, and they 
at length succeeded so far as to prevail on Con scan - 
tine to banish him to Triers, then the chief city of 
the Belgic Gaul. How often are princes obliged to 
see with the eyes of others, and how difficult is it 
frequently to them, when surrounded with flatterers 
and hypocrites, to come to the knowledge of the 
truth ! But God opened the eyes of the Emperor 
with regard to the innocence of his holy servant, 
for in his last illness he recalled St. Athanasius from 
his banishment, and expiated his faults and errors by 
devoutly receiving the sacrament of Baptism and 
i he other sacraments^in the year 3H7> when he died 
at Nicomedia. 

Alius the heresiarch had been shortly overtaken 
l>y the justice of God, and cut off the face of the 
earth by a sudden and miserable death the preceding 
year, on the very day that his friends were con- 
ducting him in triumph to the Church of Constanti- 
nople in order to thrust him forcibly into the sanc- 
tuary. The Arians continued still to disturb the 
peace of the Church. Wherefore, in the year 
S4T, or as some say 344, another synod of three hun- 
dred Bishops assembled at Sardica in Illyricum, 
Natalis Alexander considers it a genei\d council, 
but it is commonly looked upon only as an appendix 
to the council of Nice, because it only confirmed 
its decrees of faith. St. Maximinus, Bishop of 
Triers, was one of the most illustrious defendevs of 
the Catholic faith in this council. After the death 
of Constantine, surnamed the Great, his three sons 
divided the empire, as their father's will directed. 
Constantine, the eldest, had Britain, Spain, Gaul, 
and all that lies on this side the Alps. Constantius^ 
the second son, possessed Thrace, Asia, Egypt, and 
the East, Constans, the youngest, occupied Italy, 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. *4S 

Africa, Greece and Illyricum. The city of Alex 
andria, being within the jurisdiction of Constantius, 
the Arians took care to gain him over to their party. 
He was a constant protector of Arianism, and a vio- 
lent persecutor of the orthodox, especially when he 
became sole master of the whole empire in the year 
353, after the death of his two brothens^-CoftStantine- 
and Constans. Constantius objected to the Catholics 
the prosperity of his reign, as a proof of the justice 
and truth of his cause. Like Polycrates of Samos, 
who boasted that fortune ivaa in his fiay, he gloried 
in the success that crowned whatever he undertook, 
but he had not then seen the issue. He did not con- 
sider, that the smiles of fortune are often to impen- 
itent sinners the most dreadful of all divine judg- 
ments ; and that on the contrary, the afflictions and 
distresses of the just, are often the greatest effects 
of the divine mercy, and are sent by Providence for 
the exercise of patience ; to put their love to the 
test, and to call forth their resignation, humility and 
reliance on God. The Arian faction, supported thu* 
by the secular power, employed all the means that 
artifice and malice could suggest, to undermine the 
very foundation of religion, and to destroy the true 
professors of it. They deposed, scourged, wound- 
ed, imprisoned, or exiled the lawful prelates, who 
refused to communicate with them, and intruded 
apostates and usurpers into their sees, like so many 
wolves let in amongst the flock. They pulled clown 
and burnt several churches, and branded the minis- 
tersof the altar in the forehead. The emperor, also 5 
hy an unjust usurpation in the affairs of the Church ? 
was more occupied in persecuting the orthodox than 
in governing the empire- He caused a council to 
be assembled at Seleucia in Isauria, and another at 
Rimini in Italy, in the year 369. The council of Ri- 
mini consisted ol three hundred and twenty Catholic 
Bishops, and about fourscore Arian. The prelates^ 
whilst they were at their full, liberty, confirmed the 
Kicene Creed, maintained the Catholic truth, and 
refused to admit any new formulary or profession,. 
But being intimidated by the menaces of Taurus tk& 
N 2 



{50 HISTORY OF THE 

emperor's prefect, who threatened them with exllev 
and who haci received orders not to suffer ihem to 
break up until they had signed a new formula, that 
was dressed up by the Arians, a number of them, 
not aware of the fraud, and uneasy to be confined so 
long, and at such a distance from their churches, 
had the weakness to suffer themselves to be deceiv- 
ed, and to yield to the artifices of the Arians, by 
signing a captious profession of faith, in which the 
word Consubstantial w r as omitted. The formula was 
in appearance Catholic, and supposed by the fathers 
to be orthodox, for they believed that the meaning of 
the word Consubstantial was contained therein in 
other expressions. But they were afterwards sur- 
prised to see the triumph of the Arians, as if they 
had abolished the Nicene faith, which gave occasion 
to that celebrated saying of St. Jerom, that the 
iv or Id wondered tojinditself become Avian; from which 
it ioliows, that it was not really so, as no one is asto- 
nished to find himself what he really is. The fault 
of the prelates was not owing to any error in faith, 
but to a want of courage and insight into the artifices- 
of the Arians. Hence, struck with remorse for their 
unwary condescension, by which, through surprise, 
and without any intention or design, they had given 
room to the imaginary triumph of Arianism, those 
who had been beguiled, retracted their subscription, 
and professed their adherence to the Nicene faith. 
No sooner did they perceive the imposition, than 
they protested against it, and expressed their detest- 
ation of the sense given by the Arians to the sub- 
scribed formula. The Bishops spread all over the 

universal Church had no share in that seduction . 

On the contrary, having Pope Liberius at their head, 
they zealously rose up against the scandal, and dis- 
avowed this act of the council of Rimini; so that 
the public doctrine of faith suffered no change or al- 
teration whatsoever, but invariably continued one and 
the same, except in a few places, comparatively 
speaking, that were seduced into error. The great- 
est portion of the flock of Christ, even in the Eastern 
provinces, stood always firm in their faith, and adher- 



CUURCII OF CH11ISX. 1 5 i 

ed closely to the determination of the council of 
Nice, as is attested by St. Athanasius, who held the 
patriarchal chair of Alexandria forty- six years, ac- 
cording to St. Cyril. As to the Western provinces, 
they were a considerable time almost unanimous in 
their detestation of Arianism, till it was imported 
by foreign people, who came to settle there, and 
even then the West was but little infected by it, for 
Divine Providence raised St. Hilary, Bishop of Poic- 
tiers, to defend the faith, and to oppose the impious 
tenets of the Arians with invincible courage in the 
West, as St. Athanasius did in the East. 

St. Augustine styles St Hilary the illustrious doc- 
tor of the Church, and St. Jerom says, that he 
was a most eloquent man, and the trumpet of the 
Latins against the Arians. He himself says, he 
was brought up in idolatry, but having discovered 
the absurdity of Polytheism, he submitted his un- 
derstanding to divine revelation, and received the 
heavenly regeneration by baptism. He was mar- 
ried before his conversion, but from the time of his 
ordination and election to the episcopal see of Poic- 
tiers, about the year 353, he lived in perpetual con- 
tineiicy, as St. Jerom observes, 1. J. Contra Jovi- 
nian For though the Church was sometimes oblig- 
ed to make choice of married men for the priest- 
hood, because virgins, or unmarried, could not al- 
ways be found, they notwithstanding lived ever after 
continent. All St. Hilary's writings breathe an ex- 
traordinary vein of piety. St. Jerom in a particu- 
lar manner recommends to devout persons the read- 
ing of his elegant comments on the Gospel of St. 
Matthew, and on the Psalms. The weak emperor 
Constantius, who was the dupe sometimes of the 
Arians, and at other times of the Semi-arians, sent 
an order to Julian, then Csesar, in Gaul, for St. Hilar- 
ry's immediate banishment into Phrygia, together 
with St Rhodanius, bishop of Toulouse, because 
they refused to submit to the Ariaii councils of 
Aries and Milan, and to hold communion with Ur- 
sacius, V -ilens, and Saturninus, three Arian bishops 
in the West, On a similar occasion St, Eusebius of 



~fr52 HISTORY OF THfc 

Vercelli, St. Dionysius of Milan, and Lucifer bi- 
shop of Cagliari, the metropolis of Sardinia, were 
exiled. But the trophies Lucifer had gained by his- 
zeal against the Airuns, were afterwards blasted by 
the scandal he gave in laying the foundation of the 
fatal schism of the Eustathians at Antioch, and in 
giving birth to another unhappy schism of his own, 
which he still carried to greater length, refusing to 
communicate not only with the penitent bishops, who 
at Rimini had been drawn into the snares of the 
Arians, and into an omission favourable to their he- 
resy, but also with those who received them, that 
is, with the whole Catholic Church, and its visible 
head. 

St. Hilary, during his exile, employed his time 
in composing several learned works. The princi- 
pal and most esteemed of those, is that On the Tri* 
nity, against the Arians^ in twelve books. In this 
immortal monument of his admirable genius and 
piety, he proves the consubstantiaiity of the Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost, and explains the Trinity, 
which we profess in the form of Baptism. He de- 
tects and confutes the subtleties of the Arians in 
their various confessions of faith, and also of the Sa- 
bellians and Photinians. He demonstrates the divi- 
nity of Christ, from the confessions of Su Peter, and 
of the very Jews, who, more sincere than the Arians, 
acknowledged that Christ called himself the natural 
Son of God. The natural unity of the Father and ihe 
Son, he demonstrates from that text : / and my Fa- 
ther are One. He proves that * 4 Arianism cannot be 
" the faith of Christ, because not revealed to St. 
w Peter, upon whom the Church was built and se- 
" cured for ever ; for whose faith Christ prayed, 
" that it might. never fail ; who received the keys 
" of the kingdom of Heaven, and whose judiciary 
" sentence on earth is that of Heaven," 1. 6. He 
proves the divinity of Christ, " by the miracles 
" wrought at the sepulchres of the Apostles and 
M Martyrs, and by their relics : for the devils 
" themselves confess Christ's Godhead, and roar and 
Xi flee at the presence of the venerable bones of his, 
"!* servants." 1. n, de Trta. 



UfltRtH OP CHRIST. loo 

He teaches, that " the Church is one, out of 
♦ 4 which, as out of the Ark of Noah, no one can be 
" saved." 17 He observes- that u from the testi- 
;4 mony of Christ, in the holy Scriptures, and from 
ri the faith of the Church, we believe without 
4t doubting, the Eucharist to be the true body and 
" blood of Christ," I. 8. n. 14. In his exposition of 
the Psalter, which he compiled after his exile, he 
teaches that u the holy angels, patriarchs, and pro- 
f< phets, protect the Church, attend and succour 
,{ the faithful, assist them in time of combat against 
%4 the devils, and carry up their prayers to their 
» ; heavenly Father. " He also mentions " fast days 
H of precept, the violation cf which renders a 
• { Christian a slave of tne devil, a vessel cf death, 
•< and the fuel of hell," in Ps. 118.1. 18. This holy 
doctor wrote two books to Constantius, in which he 
entreats him to restore peace to the Church, and to 
rective the unchangeable apostolic faith, injured by 
the late innovations. He also smartly rallies the 
fickle humour of the Arians, " who were perpetu- 
%i ally making new creeds, condemning their old 
%i ones, having made four within the compass of the 
" foregoing year. He complains that they had 
" their yearly and monthly faiths, that they had 
u Scripture texts, and the words A/iostolic feifh in 
* ; their mouths, for no other end than to impose on 
M weak minds ; that they lost faith by attempting to 
u change it; that they corrected and amended> till, 
" weary of all, they condemned all ; that faith was 
11 now become that of the times, not that of the 
" Gospels, and that there were as many faiths as 
u men, as great a variety of doctrine as of manners, 
" as many blasphemies as vices." He therefore 
exhorts them to return to the haven from which 
the gusts of their party spirit and prejudice had 
driven them, as the only means to be delivered out 
cf their tempestuous and perilous confusion. 

The great St. Martin, the glory and light of Gaul, 
was a disciple of St. Hilary. The utter extirpation 
of idolatry out of the diocese of Tours, and all that: 
part of GauU was the fruit of his edifying pictv 3 



T54 HISTORY OP THE 

illustrious miracles, zealous labours, and fervent 
exhortations and instructions. He was remarkable 
for his humility, charity, austerity, and all other he- 
poic virtues. The churches of Spain and Gaul 
w ere at that time disturbed by the Priscilianists, 
v/ho revived many errors of Simon Magus, the 
Gnostics, and the Manicheans, to which they added 
their favourite tenet of dissimulation, holding it to be 
a precept, to conceal their doctrine by lies and perju- 
ries* for it was an avowed principle amongst them, 
Jura,') fterjura, secretum firodere noli : Swear, for- 
swear thyself, betray not the secret. These heretics 
were condemned by the council of Saragossa, with 
their abetters, Instantius and Salvianus, who grew 
furious at their condemnation, and ordained Priscil- 
lian, who gave name to the sect, Bishop of Aviia.— 
They resolved to address themselves to St. Damasus. 
Salvian died at Rome, the other two repaired to Mi- 
lan, and rrude interest with the emperor Gratian. 
But the new emperor Maximus, ordained them to 
be tried in a council at Bourdeaux. Priscillian hav- 
ing appealed to Maximus, they were both sent to 
him at Triers, where being tried by Eodius the 
praefect, and accused by ithacius, a Spanish Bishop, 
Priscillian and his associates were beheaded. St. 
Martin happening at that time to go to Triers, to 
intercede with the tyrant in favour of certain per- 
sons, who were condemned to death for adhering 
to their master Gratian, reproved the Spanish Bi- 
shop ithacius, for prosecuting and seeking to put 
heretics to death, and pressed him to desist from his 
accusation, and to consider how much the Church 
abhorred the shedding of blood, even of criminals, 
and never suffered any of her clergy to have any 
share in such causes. He also besought Maximus 
not to spill the blood of the guilty; saying it was 
sufficient that they had been declared heretics and 
excommunicated. The emperor, out of regard to 
his remonstrances, caused the trial to be deferred 
while St. Martin stayed at Triers, and even pro- 
mised that tne blood of the persons accused should 
not be spilt ; though after the saint had left Triers, 



oiiuiicii of cnnisVr >55 

lie suffered them to be condemned by the Imperial 
Judges. St. Martin, on his return to Tours, was 
received there as the tutelar angel of his people. 
In his great age he relaxed nothing of his austeri- 
ties, or of his zealous labours for the salvation of 
souls. He was above fourscore years old when he 
died, and he continued to the end of his life to 
confirm his doctrine by frequent and wonderful mira- 
cles, especially casting out devils, and raising the 
dead to life, like another Elisaeus, as we are assured 
by St. Sulpicius Severus. This illustrious writer 
was u disciple of St. Martin, and squared his life 
by his direction. His conversion from the world 
happened in the same year with that of Paulinus of 
Nola. He wrote the life of St. Martin, and says, 
that his greatest comfort in the loss of so good a 
master, w r as a confidence that he should obtain the 
divine blessings, by the prayers of St. Martin in 
Heaven. The most important work of Si. Sulpicius, 
is his Abridgment of Sacred History, from the be- 
ginning of the world, down to his own time. It is 
a most useful classical book for Christian schools, 
and looked upon as the most finished model extant 
of abridgments. The elegance, conciseness, and 
perspicuity, with which it is compiled, have pro- 
cured him the name of the Christian Sallust. He 
has imitated the style of the purest ages, though he 
sometimes takes the liberty to use certain terms and 
phrases which are not of the Augustan standard. 

St. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, was born at Bour- 
deaux, in the year 353. His superior virtues ren- 
dered him the admiration of his own and all succeed- 
ing ages, and excited St. Martin, Sulpicius Severus, 
and several others, to vie with each other in cele- 
brating his heroic actions, and to become the pub- 
lishers of his praises to the corners of the earth. 
Besides the pre-eminence of his birth and pedigree, 
in which was displayed a long line of rich and il- 
lustrious senators, he received from nature a pene- 
trating and elevated understanding, and an elegant 
genius, with other excellent accomplishments of 
mind and body, by which he w r as qualified for the 



156 HISTORY OF THE 

highest attainments, and seemed born for every thing 
that is great. These talents he cultivaved from his 
infancy, by the closest application to the study of 
all the liberal arts, and had for his master in poesy 
and eloquence the famous Ausonius, the first man 
of his age in polite literature, and the ablest master. 
Probity, integrity, and other moral virtues, were en- 
dowments of his still more admirable than his learn- 
ing. His merit was soon distinguished at the bar, 
where he pleaded with great applause. " Every 
« one, says St. Jerom, admired the purity and elo- 
" quence of his diction, the delicacy and loftiness 
(i of his thoughts, the strength and sweetness of his 
ft style, and the liveliness of his imagination." He 
was raised by the emperor to the first dignities of 
the state, and declared consul before the year 379. 
But God was pleased to open his eyes to see the 
emptiness of all worldly pursuits, and to touch his 
heart, yet divided by a desire of pleasing men, and 
to inspire him with a more noble and innocent am- 
bition, of becoming little for the sake of the king- 
dom of Heaven. He made some advances in vir- 
tue, by the conversation of St. Ambrose, St. Mar- 
tin, and St. Delphinus, Bishop of Bourdeaux, who 
spoke to him of the necessity of happiness of giv- 
ing himself to God, without reserve. He was an 
enemy to vanity and to the love of human applause, 
than which passion nothing can be more unworthy 
of virtue, or more beneath a generous soul ; though 
all the Heathen philosophers shamefully disgraced 
their attainments by this base weakness. Tully was 
not ashamed to boast of it, and Demosthenes was 
delighted to hear a poor old woman whisper, This is 
the great Uemosthenes. Paulinus seemed always rais- 
ed by his own greatness of soul above this abject 
passion, and showed that geniuses, which are truly 
great, are superior to their own abilities. But still 
he found how difficult a task it is for man to preserve 
a perfect disengagement and purity of heart, in the 
midst of worldly honours and blandishments, and to 
shield his soul from the penetrating caresses of plea- 
sures, or stand his ground against the incitements o* 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 157 

the softer passions. Certain revolutions that hap* 
pened in the empire contributed to give him a more 
feeling* sense of the instability of earthly things, 
and to discover to him the falsehood of the gilded 
bubbles, which dazzle the eyes of men at a distance. 
In fine, he sold all his estates, distributed the price 
among the poor, and retired from the world, in or- 
der to aspire to Christian perfection, and embrace 
the humility of the Cross in a small cottage, near 
Nola, in Campania. When the servants of God 
complimented him upon his retreat, he begged them 
to refrain, " and not add to the load of his sins by 
" praises which were not his due. It surprizes 
" me," said he, " that any one should look upon It 
" as a great action for a man to purchase salvation*. 
" the only solid good, with perishable pelf, and to 
" sell the earth to buy Heaven." He received the 
holy order of priesthood from the hands of the Bi- 
shop of Barcelona in the Church, on Christmas 
day, at the earnest request of the people, who were 
in hopes to fix him among themselves, but after hav- 
ing spent fifteen years in retirement, where he prac- 
tised all the rules and austerities of a monastic state, 
he was chosen to fill the episcopal chair of Nola, 
on the demise of Paul, the Bishop of that city. The 
epistles of St. Paulinus gained him the name of" the 
« delight of ancient Christian piety." St. Augustine 
says, that they flow with milk and honey, and that 
the faithful, in reading them, were transported with 
their charms, and inspired with sweetness and ar- 
dour. Ep. 27. He expresses, Ep. 23. ad Sever, a 
great devotion to the saints ; he testifies, that their 
relics were used in consecration of altars and 
churches, the faithful not doubting that they serve 
for a defence and a remedy. He mentions that their 
shrines were adorned with flowers, Poem 14. that 
crowds flocked to them, Poem 13. being attracted 
by the miracles wrought by their intercession. He 
speaks as an eye-witness of a raging fire, which had 
mastered all the power of human industry, but was 
extinguished by a little chip of the holy cross, Poem 
25. He sent to Sulpicius Severus a chip of that ha- 
O 



158 HISTORY OF THi: 

}y ^vcod enchased in gold, calling it, " A great pre- 
" sent, in a little atom ; a defence of our temporal, 
< : and a pledge of eternal life." Ep. 32. He speaks 
of holy images and pictures, and calls them the 
hooks of the ignorant, Poem 2 4. He begged the 
prayers of his friends, for the soul of his brother 
deceased, and doubts not but they will procure him 
refreshment and csmfort, if he suffered any pains 
in the other life, Ep. 35. He made every year a jour- 
ney to Rome to visit the tombs of the Apostles, Ep. 
45. and to assist at the feast of St. Peter and Paul, 
Ep. i7. All his poems on St. Felix, are full of testi* 
monies of his confidence in the intercession of that 
saint. He prays him to recommend his petitions to 
<*od, and to be his protector before the throne of his 
divine Majesty, especially at the day of judgment, 
Poem 14. Pie declares also in his 32d Epist. that in 
the holy Eucharist, we eat the same flesh of Christ, 
which was fastened on the Cross, and drink the same 
life-giving blood, that flowed from his wounds, as 
appears from the following distich : 

In crucefixaca.ro est, qua fwscor : de crucc sanguis 
Ille fiuit) vitam quo bibo, cor da lavo. 

Efi. 32. /z. 204. 

St. Nocholas, Archbishop of Myra. the capital 
of Lycia, flourished also in the fourth century, and 
became famous by his charity to the poor, his ex- 
traordinary piety and zeal, and an incredible num- 
ber of stupendous miracles. 

St. Pacian, Bishop of Barcelona, was likewise a 
great ornament of the Church in this century. St. 
Jerom extols his eloquence and learning, and more 
particularly the chastity and sanctity of his life, af- 
ter he renounced the world and was raised to the 
Episcopal chair. He wrote three learned letters to 
Senipronian, a Novatian nobleman, on penance, and 
on the name Cathode, a sermon on Baptism, and an 
exhortation to penance, which are still extant, and 
wherein he clearly asserts and proves the doctrine of 
the Church, with regard to the Sacraments of Bap- 
tism, Confirmation, Eucharist, and Penance. The 






CHURCH OF CHRIST. 159 

beauty of this holy doctor's writings can only be 
discovered by reading them. His diction is elegant, 
his reasoning just and close, and his thoughts lively, 
He is full of unction when he exhorts to virtue, and 
of strength when he attacks vice, and defends the true 
faith, which made him say, in his reply to Sempro- 
man, who thought him angry, " that remedies seem 
" often bitter, and that he only was like the bee, 
" which sometimes defends its honey with its sting. " 
St. Ephrem was the most illustrious of all the 
doctors, who by their doctrine and writings have, 
ndorned the Syriac Church in the fourth century. 
He was born in the territory of Nisibis, a strong ci- 
tv in Mesopotamia, and consecrated to God by his 
parents, from his cradle, like another Samuel, 
though he was eighteen years old when he was bap- 
tized. The great servant of God, St. James, Bishop 
of Nisibis, was his spiritual director and patron* 
He spent many years in the desert, out of which he 
came inflamed with the ardour of a Baptist, to 
preach penance with incredible zeal and fruit, and 
to announce the divine truths to a world buried in 
spiritual darkness and insensibility. Being ordained 
deacon of the Church of Edessa, he became an 
apostle of penance, brought many idolators to the 
faith, and converted great numbers of Arians, Sa- 
bellians, Novatians, Mlllenarians, Marcionites, A- 
poliinarians, Manicheans, and disciples of the im- 
pious Bardesanes, who denied the resurrection of 
the flesh. He never would consent to be promoted 
to the sacerdotal dignity, but continued always in the 
humble stationjof a deacon. His spotless purity was 
the fruit of his sincere humility and constant watch- 
fulness over himself. He was deeply penetrated with 
the fear of the Divine judgment, and had always 
present to his mind the rigorous account he was to 
give to God of all his actions. Nothing seemed 
more admirable in him than his compunction of 
heart, the sister of that sincere humility, which all 
his words, actions, and writings, breathed in a most 
affecting manner. He appeared always drowned in 
an abyss of compunction. Night and day his eyes 



16d HIStOKY OF TftE 

.aeemed swimming in tears, which readily flowed 
iron, him in abundance, as often as he raised his 
heart to God, or remembered the sweetness of his 
divine love, or the baseness of sin. " We cannot 
" call to mind his perpetual tears, says St. Gregory 
" of Nyssa, without melting 1 into tears. We can- 
" not read his discourses on the last judgment with* 
" out weeping. Where is the proud man, continues 
" the same holy doctor, who would not become 
" humble by reading his discourse on humility ? 
" Who would not be inflamed with a divine lire by 
u reading his treatise on charily ? Who would not 
?i wish to be chaste in heart and spirit, by reading the 
M praises he has given to virginity ?" 

St. Ephrem spoke with admirable perspicuity, co- 
piousness and sententiousness, in an easy unaffected 
style. Words flowed from him like a torrent, when 
he treated of spiritual subjects. His writings derive 
a singular energy from the natural bold tropes of the 
.Syriac language, of which he was a perfect master, 
and have a graceful beauty and force, which no 
translation can attain ; though 'his works are not 
studied compositions, but the effusions of an heart 
penetrated and overflowing with the most perfect 
sentiments of divine love, confidence, compunction, 
humility, and other virtues. He wrote seventy-six 
Purenesex^ or moving exhortations to penance, and 
several treatises and sermons on compunction, on 
the vices and passions, on humility, on the last 
Judgment, on fraternal charity, on the beatitudes 
and virtues, and divers other subjects. He also 
wrote commentaries on the first book of Moses, the 
fourth book of Kings, Joshua, Judges, Job, and on 
all the prophets, &c. His works demonstrate the 
uniformity in faith of the Church in the fourth 
century, with that cf the Church of all ages. No- 
thing can be clearer than the texts collected by 
Ceil'lier, torn. 8. p. 101. from the writings of St. 
Ephrem in favour of the real presence of the sacred 
body of Christ in the holy Eucharist. His confi- 
dence in the precious fruit of this blessed sacrament 
of the altar raised his hope, and inflamed his love 



CITL'RCH OF CHRIST. 16 l 

especially in his last illness, and on his passage to 
eternity, about the year 378, for he then expressed 
himself thus ; " Entering upon so long and danger- 
" ous a journey, I have my viaticum, even thee, 
■ O Son of God. In my extreme spiritual hunger, 
" I will feed on thee, the repairer of mankind. So 
" it shall be that no fire will dare to approach me ; 
" for it will not be able to bear the sweet saving 
" odour of thy body and blood. " Necrosim. can. 81.. 
p. 355. t. 6. 

St. James, Bishop of Nisibis, in Mesopotamia, 
who lived in the fourth century, was favoured with 
the gifts of prophecy and miracles in an uncommon, 
manner. Nicephorus names him among the holy 
bishops in the Council of Nice, who bore the glo- 
rious marks of their sufferings for Christ. His 
learning and writings have procured him a rank next 
to St. Ephrem, among the doctors of the Syriac 
Church. He wrote eighteen excellent discourses 5 
still extant, on faith, charity, fasting, prayer, hu- 
mility, holy virginity, on penance, and other pious 
subjects. In his fourth discourse he expressly says : 
" None will be cleansed, unless they have been 
M washed in the laver of baptism, and have received 
Ci the body and blood of Christ." And in his 
seventh discourse he exhorts sinners " to confess 
w speedily their crimes; to conceal which, through 
" shame, is final impenitence." He adds, " the priest 
¥ cannot disclose such a confession." p. 237. Gen- 
nadius also mentions twenty-six books written by 
this holy doctor in the Syriac tongue. 

St. Gregory of Nyssa, younger brother to St. Basil 
the Great, was so illustrious in the fourth century,, 
that the Arians trembled at his name. Having re- 
nounced the world, he was ordained Lector, and in 
the year 372, he was chosen Bishop of Nyssa, a city 
of Cappadocia, near the Lesser Armenia. The high 
reputation of his, learning and virtue, procured him 
the title of Father of the Fathers^ as the seventh 
general council testifies. His sermons are eternal 
monuments of his piety, zeal, and eloquence ; but. 
\is great penetration and learning appear more in 
O 2 



162 HISTORY OF THE 

his polemic works, especially in his twelve books 
against Eunomius. He wrote many commentaries 
on the holy Scriptures, five orations on the Lord's 
Prayer, and eight sermons on the eight beatitudes, 
His sermons on penance, on alms, on virginity, on 
the lent fast, on loving the poor, and against usurers, 
fornicators, and those who defer baptism, are par- 
ticularly beautiful and elegant. He writes very ex- 
pressly, and at length, on the invocation of Saints, 
inpUlcates the authority of Priests, in binding and 
loosing before God, and calls St. Peter the head of 
the Apostles, and the prince of the apostolic chair e 
He is no less clear for the sacrifice of the altar, for 
the private confession of sins, and for tran substan- 
tiation, in his great catechistical discourse, c. 37. p. 
534, where, speaking of the two sacraments of Bap- 
tism and of the body of Christ, he says, M that in 
" the latter, Christ's real body is mixt with our cor- 
" ruptible bodies, to bestow on us immortality of 
M grace." 

St. Basil, the Great^ the illustrious doctor and in- 
trepid champion of the Church, in the fourth cen- 
tury, was born towards the close of the year 329 t 
at Caesarea, the metropolis of Cappadocia. After 
making a wonderful proficiency in the first elements 
of literature, first at Caesarea, and then in oratory 
at Constantinople, under the celebrated sophist and 
rhetorician Libanius, he was sent to Athens, which 
from the days of Pericles, who raised Greece Irom 
barbarism, remained still the seat of the Muses, and 
of the purity and attic eiegance of the Greek tongue. 
Here he met and contracted an intimacy with St. 
Gregory Nazianzen, which was the most perfect 
model of holy friendship, not founded on base inter- 
est, pleasure, sensual fondness, or a variable affec- 
tion, but rooted in pure love and motives of true 
virtue. They carefuly shunned the rock of bad 
company, and the conversation of scholars, chat 
were impious, rude* or impudent. A most import- 
ant lesson, especially to youth, the neglect of which 
is the ruin of the strongest virtue, and renders abor- 
tive all the care and instructions of the most zealous 



CULIUil OF CHRIST. 1 6G 

parents and pastors, and all the fruit of the very 
best education. The holy pair of perfect friends 
knew only two streets in Athens, as St. Gregory 
tells us, the first which led them to the church and 
to the holy teachers and doctors, who there attend- 
ed the service of the altar, and nourished the flock 
of Christ with the food of life. The second street 
was the road to the schools, and to their masters in 
the sciences. They left to others the streets which 
led to the theatre, to spectacles, feastings, and diver- 
sions, and avoided the dangerous snares which the 
enemy of souls never fails to throw in the way on 
such occasions. It was no loss, but an advantage 
to them, that from motives of virtue, they abhor- 
red the theatre, for the stage only gives a theatrical 
accent and gesture, ill becoming an orator, and 
never formed any great man to speak well at the 
bar, or in the pulpit. Basil soon excelled in all the 
liberal arts and sciences. He spared no pains to 
perfect himself in the art of true and genuine elo- 
quence, and to form his style upon the best models, 
lie excelled likewise in poesy, philosophy, and eve- 
ry other branch of literature. In logic, such were 
his superior abilities, that it would have been more 
easy for a man to draw himself out of a labyrinth, 
than to extricate himself from the web, in which he 
entangled his adversaries by the force of his rea- 
soning, as St. Gregory tells us. He seasoned his 
studies with the assiduous meditation of the holy 
Scriptures, and a diligent perusal of the works of 
the Fathers, in order to qualify himself for the mi- 
nistry of the Church, and for announcing the great 
truths of salvation to mankind. At Athens he was 
already regarded as an oracle both in sacred and 
profane learning. In the year 357, he travelled 
over Syria and Egypt, and visited the mosi cele- 
brated monasteries and hermits of the deserts m 
those countries. Being much edified by the exam- 
ples of those holy men, who lived iike travellers on 
earth and citizens of heaven, he despised all the- 
glittering advantages, with which the world flatter- 
ed him, gave away the greatest part of his estate to 



IG4> HISTORY OF THE 

the poor, and embraced the penitential and labori- 
ous state of a poor monk. He was ordained priest 
in the year 363, and upon the death of Eusebius 
was chosen and consecrated Archbishop of Caesa- 
rea, in the year 370. Being placed in this dignity, 
he seemed as much to surpass himself, as he had be- 
fore surpassed others. Like an impregnable tower, 
he baffled all the efforts of the Arians and Euno- 
mians, and gained a glorious triumph over the em- 
peror Valens. He was indefatigable in preaching 
to his flock, and advancing piety and devotion. His 
zeal made him spare no pains for the conversion of 
sinners, whose crimes were to him a perpetual 
source of tears and sighs to the Father of Mercies. 
The poor distressed and afflicted were always sure 
to find comfort and relief in his boundless charity. 
He founded a vast hospital, which Nazianzen calls 
a new city. St. Gregory of Nyssa compares his 
abstinence to the fast of Eiias. His writings are 
published in three volumes, folio. Erasmus, and 
many other critics, call St. Basil the most accom- 
plished orator the world has ever produced, supe- 
* rior even to Cicero and Demosthenes, the unrivalled 
princes of eloquence among the ancient Greeks and 
Romans. 

St. Gregory of Nazianzen, was surnamed the The- 
ologian^ on account of his profound skill in sacred 
learning His Father, whose name also was Gre- 
gory, being from his youth a worshipper of false 
gods, was at length converted by the prayers and 
tears of his pious wife Nonna, and baptized about 
the time of the great council of Nice, being then 
about forty-five years old. The sanctity of his life 
raised him soon to the episcopal see oi Nazianzen 
near Csesarea, which he- heid about forty-five years 
with great edification, living in celibacy, and rigor- 
ously observing the canons of the Church. St- Gre- 
gory, his eldest son, born long before the father's 
conversion and episcopacy, was consecrated by his 
mother to the service of God from his infancy, and 
received such impressions of piety in his tender age, 
tfiat he resolved to spend his life in the holy state of 



CilVllCH OV CHRX3T. 1 6 J 

perfect continence. The progress he made in elo- 
quence, philosophy) and the sacred studies, appears 
by the high reputation which he acquired, and by 
the monuments he has transmitted to posterity But 
his greatest happiness and praise was that he al- 
ways made the fear and love of God his principal 
affair, to which he referred his studies, all his pur- 
suits and endeavours. In these dispositions he en- 
joyed his dear friend, St. Basil, in the solitude of 
Pontus, where fasting, watching, prayer, contem- 
plation, studying the holy Scriptures, singing psalms, 
and manual labour, employed the whole time. Be- 
ing afterwards, with great reluctance, ordained 
Priest, in the year 361, he trembled at the thoughts 
of the terrible account which would be demanded 
of him for the souls committed to his care, and of 
the duties of the sacerdotal office, and the sanctity 
requisite to approach the altar of God. Yielding 
however to the necessities of the Church, he ac- 
quiesced, and was afterwards importuned by Sjt. Ba- 
sil to receive the episcopal consecration at Caesarea, 
in the year 372. At length, notwithstanding many 
tears and expostulations, he was placed in the 
archiepiscopal chair of Constantinople by the united 
solicitations and entreaties of the faithful, and of a 
synod of ail the Bishops of the East, wherein St. 
Meletius, Patriarch of Antioch, presided. It was 
here that St. Jerorn, coming out of the deserts of 
Syria, became his disciple and scholar. The faith- 
ful there, and even heretics and pagans, admiring 
his erudition, and charmed with his eloquence? 
flocked to his sermons and discourses, as men parch- 
ing with thirst eagerly go to the spring to quench it. 
He soon reformed the morals of the people, and 
purged them of that poison which had corrupted 
their hearts for many years. But the envy of the 
Devil and of his instruments could not bear the suc- 
cess of the saint's apostolic iabours. Several at- 
tempts were made upon his life, because he valued 
nothing but God, and scorned to flatter the great 
ones in their luxury. A ferment was raised among 
the people, and the Bishops of Egypt complained* 



1 66 HISTORY OP THE 

that his election to the chair of Constantinople was 
uncanonical, it being forbidden by the canons to 
transfer bishops from one see to another, for fear 
of introducing avarice or ambition into the sanctua- 
ry. Wherefore St. Gregory Nazianzen, falling on 
his knees before the emperor Theodosius, who had 
put him in possession of the Church of St. Sophia, 
prayed him to accept his resignation, and grant him 
license to retire to his little cottage, which being 
obtained with much difficulty, the saint delivered a 
-pathetic discourse in the metropolitan Church, be- 
fore a hundred and fifty bishops, and an incredible 
multitude of people. He declared, that he was 
placed in that chair through the importunities of 
others, that he never desired that dignity, that he 
took the charge upon him much against his will, 
and that he had never taken possession of any 
other see. He said, that since his holding the see of 
Constantinople gave disturbance, he was ready and 
willing to depart, and like Jonas, to be cast into the 
sea, to appease the storm, though he did not raise it. 
He only wished thai the Church of God might enjoy 
peace, and that the see might be filled by a person 
capable and willing to defend the faith. He observ- 
ed, " that he was accused of having made a mean 
" appearance with respect both to dress and table ;" 
but he vindicated himself herein, saying : M 1 did 
a not take it to be any part of my duty to vie with 
" consuls, generals, and governors, who know not 
" how to employ their riches otherwise than in 
M pomp and show. Neither did I imagine, that the 
M necessary subsistence of the poor was to be ap- 
u piied to the support of luxury, good cheer, a 
" prancing horse, a sumptuous chariot, and a long 
ci train of attendants. If I have acted in another 
t; manner, and have thereby given offence, the 
" fault is already committed, and cannot be recal- 
" led ; but I hope is not unpardonable." He con- 
cluded, by bidding a moving farewell to his Church, 
to the clergy, and to his dear flock, beseeching 
them " to preserve the depositum of faith, and to 
M remember the stones^jwhich had been thrown at 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. iGr 

;t him, because he planted it in their hearts." Num- 
bers followed him weeping, but Constantinople was 
not worthy to possess so great and so holy a pasior. 
He left that city before the election of Nectarius, 
and returned to his favourite solitude, where seeing 
himself at liberty, and rejoicing in his happiness, 
he expressed himself to a friend in these words : 
H What advantages have I not found in the jealousy 
n of my enemies ? They have delivered me from 
" the lire of Sodom, by drawing me from the dan- 
-" gers of the episcopal charge." Ep. 73. He spent 
the remainder of his life in retirement, in a private 
abode near Arianzum, where he had a garden, a 
fountain, and a shady grove. Here, in company 
with a few anchorites, he lived estranged from plea- 
sures, and in the practice of bodily mortification, 
fasting, watching, and praying. " I live, says he, 
" Carm. 5. and 60. among rocks and wild beasts, 
<- c never seeing any fire or using shoes, having only 
" one single garment. I lie on straw, clad in sack- 
" cloth : my floor is always moist with the tears I 
" shed." Carm. 147. In the decline of life he wrote 
several pious poems, in opposition to the poems 
made use of by the Apoilinarists to propagate their 
poisonous errors. In his paranetic poem to St. 
Olympius, he lays down excellent rules for the con- 
duct of married women : among other precepts, he 
says : " In the first place honour God ; then respect 
" your husband ; love only him ; take care never to 
" give him any occasion of offence or disgust. Yield 
« to him in his anger : comfort and assist him in his 
" pains and afflictions, speak t< him with sweetness- 
" and tenderness, and make him prudent and modest 
" remonstrances at seasonable times. It is not by 
" violence and strength that the keepers of lions en- 
" deavour to tame ihem, when they see them en- 
" raged : but they soothe and caress them, stroking 
k< them gently, and speaking with a soft voice." His 
writings contain an hundred and fifty-eight poems, 
full of aspirations of divine love to. Jesus Christ, 
"without whose grace," he says, "we are only 
" dead carcasses exhaling the stench of sin, and as 



168 HISTORY OF THE 

« incapable of making one step, as a bird is of flying 
* without air, or a fish of swimming without water : 
« for he alone can make us see, act, and run." He 
wrote 237 letters, published by the learned Billius, 
and 227 epigrams, published by the indefatigable 
Muratori, Librarian to the Duke of Modena. He 
composed 46 orations on several points of morality 
and mysteries of faith, and two discourses against 
the Apollinarists. He teaches and practises the 
invocation of saints in many places. He reproaches 
Julian the apostate, that he refused to honour the 
relics of the martyrs, which cured distempers and 
expelled devils. 

St. Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium, the capital 
of the second Pisidia, otherwise called Lycaonia, 
was a learned and eminent Father of the fourth cen- 
tury, and an intimate friend of St. Gregory Nazian- 
zen and St. Basil. He assisted at the general Coun- 
cil of Constantinople, held in 381, against the Ma- 
cedonian heretics. Theodoret informs us, that St. 
Amphilochius zealously opposed the rising heresy of 
the Messalians or Euchites, who were a set of fana- 
tics, that sprung up in Mesopotamia, and gave much 
disturbance to the Church. They pretended to an 
extraordinary perfection, placed the whole essence 
of religion in prayer alone, rejected the use of the 
Sacraments, and all other practices of religion, even 
fasting ; lived in the fields with their wives and chil- 
dren, leading idle vagabond lives, meeting every 
night and morning in their oratories (which were 
buildings open at the top) by the light of lamps, to 
sing spiritual songs, and to pray without interrup- 
tion. St. Epiphanius tells us, " they explained the 
u texts of Scripture concerning selling all their 
;{ goods, and of praying without intermission, ac- 
i{ cording to the rigour of the letter." Like the 
Convulsionarists, the Cevennes, and other modern 
fanatics, they pretended to visions and wonderful il- 
luminations, in which much is to be ascribed to a heat- 
ed imagination, though it seems not to be doubted 
but, by the divine permission, they sometimes suffer- 
ed extraordinary impulses and illusions from the 
deviL 



CHURCH OF CHRIbi. I (1 

Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem, and successor 

10 St. Maximum flourished in this century. lie 
received the degrees of the council of Nice and of 
the council of Sarclica, in the year 349, and made 
an undaunted profession of the Consubstantial Tri- 

Lo his letter to Constantius the Emperor. He 
assisted in the year 381, at the general council of 
Constantinople, and joined with the other bishops in 
condemning the Semi-arians and Macedonians. He 
preached to the faithful every Sunday, and perform - 

r several years the office of catechist. to instruct 
and prepare the catechumens, who ordinarily re- 
mained two years in the course of instruction and 
prayer, and were not admitted to Baptism tiil they 
had given proof of their morals and conduct, as 
well as of their constancy in the faith. The begin- 
ning of his episcopacy was remarkable for a prodigy, 
by which God was pleased to honour the instrument 
of our redemption. It is related by Socrates, Phi- 
•ostorgius, the Chronicle of Alexandria, Sec. S& 
Cyril, who was an eye witness, and wrote imme- 
diately to the Emperor Constantius an exact account 
of this miraculous phenomenon. " On the seventh 
M of May, about nine in the morning, a vast lumi- 
rt nous body in the form of a cross appeared in the 
H the heavens, just over the holy Golgotha, reach- 
M ing as far as the holy Mount of Olivet (that is, at 
M most two English miles in length) seen not by one 

11 or two persons, but clearly and evidently by the 
" whole city. It was not a momentary transient 
*• phaenomenon, for it continued several hours to- 
* ; gether visible to our eyes, and brighter than the 
11 sun ; the light of which would have eclipsed it, 
n had net this been stronger. The whole city, 
>c struck with a reverential fear tempered with joy, 
" ran immediately to the church, young and old, 
a Christians and Heathens, citizens and strangers, 
4 * all with one voice .giving praise to our Lord Jesus 
M Christ, the only Son of God, the worker of mi^ 
u racles, finding by experience the truth of the 
rt Christian doctrine to which the Heathens bear 

v witness." Philostorgius, and the Alexandrian 
P 



170 HISTORY OF THE 

Chronicle affirm, that the cross of light was cnciiv 
cled with a large rainbow ; nor could it be deemed 
a natural solar Halo, since both experience and the 
natural cause of iialos show, that they do not ap- 
pear in the figure of a cross, but a ring or circle. 
" It is an ugly circumstance, says Mr. Jortin, and I 
" wish we could fairly get rid of it;" But those who 
can explain the Scripture account of the passage of 
the Israelites through the Red Sea by a natural strong 
"wind, and an extraordinary ebbing of the waters, can 
find no knot too hard for them, but can swallow con- 
tradictions and build hypotheses far more wonderful 
than the greatest miracles, when they wish to deny 
a supernatural interposition. 

The catechetical sermons, which St. Cyril preach- 
ed for the instruction of the catechumens to prepare 
them for Baptism and the holy Communion, consist 
of eighteen to the Com/iete?ites^ or illuminati, that is, 
catechumens before Baptism, and of five mystago- 
gic discourses, addressed to the catechumens after 
they were initiated in the holy mysteries of Baptism, 
Confirmation, and the Eucharist, which were not ful- 
ly expounded to such as were not initiated out of re- 
spect, and for fear of giving occasion to their profana- 
tion by the blasphemies of infidels. This is one of the 
most important works of antiquity. It is evident 
from six hundred passages in these discourses, that 
they were delivered in Jerusalem about the middle 
of the fourth century, seventy years after Manes 
broached his heresy. In these discourses he gives 
a nummary of the Christian faith, reckons up the 
canonical books of Scripture, explains very distinct- 
ly and clearly every article of our creed, extols ex- 
ceedingly the state of virginity, calls the lent the 
greatest time of fasting and penance, recommends on 
all occasions the tenderest devotion to the holy cross 
of Christ, inculcates the honour due to the relics of 
saints, proves that the holy Catholic Church cannot 
fail or err, instructs his Neophytes perfectly in the 
mysteries of the sacraments of Baptism, Confirma- 
tion, and the Eucharist, which it was thought a pro- 
fanation to explain fully to any before Baptism.— 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 171 

He teaches them, that Baptism imprints an indelible 
signet, or spiritual character on the soul, that the 
character or signet of the communication of the Ho- 
ly Ghost is by confirmation imprinted on the soul, 
-whilst the forehead is anointed with chrism, after 
Baptism. He teaches, that Baptism perfectly re- 
mits all sin; but penance, the remedy for sins after 
it, does not quite efface them, as wounds that are 
healed leave still scars. He attributes great virtue 
to the exorcisms, and to the blessed oil and mystical 
ointment. He explains the force of the baptismal re- 
nunciations of the Devil and his pomps, and what the 
other ceremonies of Baptism mean. In the twenty- 
second and twenty-third mystagogic catecheses he ex- 
plains the blessed Eucharist, and the liturgy or sacri- 
fice of the Mass and Communion. As to the blessed 
Eucharist, he says, by it we are made concorfioreal 
and consanguineal with Christ, by his body and blood 
being distributed through our bodies. Cat. 22. n. 1. 
3. He explains the doctrine of tran substantiation 
here in so plain terms, that no one who reads this 
twenty-second catechesis, (n. 1. 2. 3. 6. p. 32. 320. 
and 321.) can doubt of its being the faith of the 
Church in the fourth century. In the twenty-third 
and last catechesis he calls the Mass an unbloody 
sacrifice, a victim of propitiation, a supreme wor- 
ship. He explains the preface and other principal 
parts of it, especially the communion. He expounds 
the Lord's Prayer, and mentions the commemora- 
tions for the living and the dead. Of the latter he 
writes thus, n. 9. p. 328. " We also pray for the 
" deceased holy fathers, bishops, and all in general 
" who are dead, believing that this will be a great 
" succour to those souls lor which prayer is offered, 
" whilst the holy and most tremendous victim lies 
A4 present." 

The great St. John Chrysostom holds an eminent 
place among the most illustrious doctors and holy 
pastors />f the Church of the fourth century. He 
was born about the year 344, at Antioch, the capital 
city of the East. He was surnamed Chrysostom, or 
Golden Mouths on account of the fluency and sweet- 



UF2 HISTORY OF THE 

ness of his eloquence. St. Augustine,. St. Nilus^ 
St. Isidore of Pelusium, and others, style him the 
wise interpreter of the secrets of God, the lamp of 
virtue, the most shining star of the earth, and sun 
of the* universe. He was ordained deacon by St. 
Meieiius. and priest by St. Flavian, who constituted 
him .is vicar and ordinary preacher at Antioch, 
which contained at that time a hundred thousand 
souls. Ail tnese he fed with the word of God, 
preaching several days in the week, and frequently 
several times on the same day. The instruction and 
.care of tne poor, be regarded as his first obligation, 
and always made his favourite employment and de- 
light fit never ceased in his sermons to plead their 
oar.se, and to recommend to the people the precept of 
alms deeds. Nothing could withstand the united pow- 
er of his eloquence, zeal, and piety, during the twelve 
years that he discharged the duties of his arduous 
station at Antioch. He abolished the most inveterate 
abuses, repressed vice, and changed the whole face 
of that great city. Alter the death of Nectarius, he 
was consecrated Archbishop of Constantinople, in 
the year 398, for the benefit of innumerable souls. 
He suppressed the wicked custom of swearing, first 
at Antioch, then at Constantinople. By his charity 
and zeal, he tamed the fiercest sinners, and changed 
them into meek lambs, tie preached against immo- 
desty of dress and extravagance, pomp and vanity of 
women, with such success, that lie persuaded the ladies 
of Constantinople to despise and lay aside the use of pur- 
ple, silks, and jewels, and to consider cloathing as the 
covering of the ignominy of sin, and a memorial of the 
fall of our first parents, which ought to be an instru- 
ment of penance, and a motive of confusion and tears, 
rather than of pride and vanity. The voluminous ex- 
cellent writings of this glorious doctor, are a rich 
and complete treasure of the maxims of Christian 
virtue, and make his standing and most authentic 
culogium. The benedictine edition of his works, in 
twelve tomes, by Don Montfaucon, in the year 1718, 
is of all others the most complete ; he wrote com- 
ments on the whole Scripture, and beautiful mstruc- 



CHURCH OF cftRlsl. 173 

Uons and sermons almost upon every Christian vir- 
tue and duty. His commentaries on St. Matthew 
are full of such admirable instruction, that St. Tho- 
mas of Aquin said, he would rather be master of 
this single book, than of the whole city of Paris . 
Nothing* can be stronger or more tender than the 
manner in which he expresses his charity and soli- 
citude for his flock. When he touches this topic, 
his words are all fire and flame, and seem to breathe 
the fervour of St. Peter, the zeal of St. Paul, and the 
charity of Moses. He often recommends the advan- 
tages and necessity of assiduous prayer, with singu- 
lar energy. Speaking of prayers for the souls of the 
faithful departed, he says, Horn. 3. torn. 1 1. p. 217% 
that it is a wholesome ordinance of the Apostles irt 
their favour to commemorate them in the adorable 
mysteries, in presence of the adorable sacrifice. In 
his sermon on Lent he strongly inculcates the obli- 
gation of fasting, and informs us that Christains in 
that penitential season abstained from wine and fish, 
no less than from fowls and flesh. In his homilies 
on Penance, he condemns stage entertainments, as 
schools of the Devil, the seat of pestilence, the fur- 
nace of Babylon, and strong incentives to vice, as 
they serve to feed concupiscence and inflame the pas- 
sions, by administering the fuel which should be 
withdrawn, according to the well known maxim : 
Take away the fuel and you take away the JIatne, 
Subtrabe lignafocoy si vis extinguere jlammam. He 
frequently speaks of the miracles wrought by the 
relics of St. Babylas, and at the tombs of other ho- 
ly martyrs. In his 54. homil. on St. Matthew, speak- 
ing of the sign of the holy cross, he says ; " Let us 
<4 carry about the cross of Christ as a crown, and 
w let us not blush at the ensign of salvation. If you 
" form it on your forehead, no uncle m spirit shall 
ct be able to stand against yon, when he beholds this 
M instrument, which has given him the mortal stab* 
" and which has broken down the gates of Hell, un- 
Ci bolted those of paradise, and opened ith glory to 
* us." In hi* farewell sermon, speaking of the un- 
just persecution he suffered at Constantinople^ he 
P % 



174 HISTORY OF THE 

says : " Violent storms encompass me on all sides, 
" yet I am without fear, because I stand upon a rock. 
44 Though the sea roar, and the waves rise high, they 
" cannot sink the vessel of Jesus. I fear not death, 
44 which is my gaia ; nor banishment, for the whole 
44 earth is the Lord's ; nor the loss of goods, for I 
" came naked into the world, and must leave it irt 
44 the same condition. The terrors, smiles, and frowns: 
44 of the world are to me more contemptible than a 
44 spider's web. I always say, O Lord, may thy will 
44 be done. What it shall please thee to appoint, that 
44 shall I do and suffer with joy. This is my strong 
44 tower; this is my unshaken rock ; this is my staff 
44 that can never fail." But he expresses himself on 
no subject with greater tenderness or force, than on 
the excess of the divine love which is displayed in 
the holy Eucharist, and in exhorting the faithful to 
the frequent use of that heavenly sacrament. He re- 
commends the most profound respect for it, and fre- 
quently speaks of the enormity of a sacrilegious com- 
munion. He calls the blessed Eucharist the tremen- 
dous mystery, the miracle of mysteries, the body 
that was scourged, that was pierced with nails, and 
fastened to the cross. He charges us not to contra- 
dict the words of Christ, but to captivate our reason 
and understanding in obeying him, and believing his 
word, which cannot deceive us, whereas our senses 
often lead us into mistakes. He desires us to con- 
sider this mystery with spiritual eyes, and to believe 
Christ, when he tells us, This is my Body. He ex- 
horts us to approach the holy table with a vehement 
hunger and thirst after this divine banquet, and says, 
that to be deprived of this heavenly food, ought to be 
to us the most sensible, nay, our only grief. Tom. 
7. horn. 82. In his first Homily On the Treason of 
Judas, he says, that " Christ gives us in the Encha- 
in rist the same body which he delivered to death 
44 for us, and that he refused not to present to Judas 
" the very blood which that traitor sold." Horn. 1. 
t. 2. p. 383. He repeats the same thing, Horn 2. p. 
393. In fine, he exhorts sinners to hope in the 
niercy of Christ, * 4 who, leaving the earth, left us 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 175 

" bis own flesh, which yet he carried with him into 
M heaven, and that blood, which he spilt for us, he 
" again imparted to us. After this, what will he 
iC refuse to do for our salvation V 9 

Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, the most learned 
of the Ciiristian poets, flourished in the days of St. 
John Chrysostom, being born in the year 348, in 
Old Castile in Spain. This age likewise produced 
the great servant of God and holy doctor St. Epi- 
phanius, who was born about the year 310, in the 
territory of Eleutheropolis, in Palestine. He was 
raised to the arohiepiscopal see of Salamis, in Cy- 
prus, about the year 367, and governed it with 
great piety, zeal, and sanctity, thirty-six years. So- 
zomen testifies, that God honoured his tomb with 
miracles, 1. 27. c. 27. His works are published by 
the learned Petavius, in two volumes, folio, but the 
original Greek must be consulted by those who de- 
sire to avoid some mistakes, which are said to be in 
the translation. In his Anchoret he explains the prin- 
cipal articles of the Catholic faith. In his Pana- 
ritium, or box of Antidotes against all heresies, he 
gives the history of twenty heresies before Christ, 
and of four-score since the promulgation of the 
Gospel. These heresies he confutes by the Scrip- 
tures and tradition. He justifies the practice, and 
proves the obligation of praying for the dead, and 
admires how Arius could presume to abolish the 
fasts of Wednesdays and Fridays, whic h, he says, are 
observed by the whole earth, and that by apostolical 
authority. Hser. 76. 

About the same time lived the holy Bishop of 
Gaza, St. Porphyrius, who in the year 378, conse- 
crated himself to God, in a famous monastery in the 
desert of Scete. The writers of his life testify that 
he converted a great number of idolaters by his il- 
lustrious miracles, and the eminent sanctity of his 
life. Besides these, and many other holy prelates 
who flourished in the fourth century, particularly 
the four chief doctors of the Eastern or Greek 
Church, viz. St. Athanasius, St. Basil, St. Gregory 
Nazianzen, and St. John Chrysosto»m 5 three -out of 



176 HISTORY OF THE 

the four chief doctors of the Western or Latin 
Church, were likewise born in the same century. 
St. Jerom was born in the year 329, St. Ambrose 
about the year 340, St. Augustine on the 13th of 
November, in the year 354. St. Jerom being in- 
structed in piety, and in the first principles of lite- 
rature at home, at Stridonium, a small town upon 
the confines of Pannonia, Dalmatia, and Italy, near 
Aquiieia, was sent by his parents to Rome, where 
he had for his tutors the famous Donatus and Vic- 
torinus, and made an amazing progress in the Greek 
and Latin languages, as well as in oratory, A ve- 
hement thirst after learning made him undertake a 
tour through Gaul, where the Romans had erected 
several famous schools- When he arrived at Triers 
with his friend Bonosus, the sentiments of piety, 
which he had imbibed in his infancy, were awaked, 
and his heart being entirely converted to God, he 
took a resolution to renounce all the vanities of the 
world, and to devote himself wholly to the divine 
service, in a state of perpetual continence, as he 
informs us in his first Epistle, p. 3. He repaired 
therefore to Aquiieia, and shut himself up for some 
time in a monastery, that was famous for many emi- 
nent and learned men. He afterwards retired to a 
hideous desert, lying between Syria and Arabia, 
where he spent four years in studies, and the fervent 
exercises of piety, self-denial, and mortification. He 
there learned the Hebrew alphabet from a converted 
Jew, and neglected no means to perfect himself in 
the knowledge of the Hebrew language. Before 
the end of the year 377, he received the holy order 
of priesthood from the hands Paulinus, Patriarch 
of Antioch. About the year 380, he went to Con- 
stantinople, some short time after being called to 
Rome by Pope Damasus, he was employed by him 
in answering the consultations of Bishops, and in 
other important affairs of the Church. The letters 
of this holy doctor contain exccUent advice and in- 
structions for various states and conditions All 
the heresies which w< re broach* d in his time, fuund 
in him a warm and indefatigable adversary. Dama- 



church of christ;. \%7 

<sais dying in the year 384, St. Jerom returned into 
the East, there to seek a quiet retreat in the holy- 
palaces of Palestine, particularly at Bethlehem, 
which was his favourite and usual residence. At 
Alexandria he met the famous Didymus, and as he 
tells us, profited very much by his conversation.— 
There never seems to have been a more wonderful 
example of a learned blind man, than this Didymus. 
St. Jerom, Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret as- 
sure us, that he lost his sight by a humour which fell 
upon both his eyes in his infancy, when he just be- 
gan to learn the alphabet. Nevertheless, he after- 
ward got the letters of the alphabet cut in wood, 
and learned to distinguish them by the touch. With 
the assistance of hired readers and copiers he be- 
came acquainted with almost all authors sacred and 
profane, and acquired a thorough knowledge of 
grammar, logic, arithmetic, music, geometry, astro- 
nomy, the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, and 
chiefly a knowledge of the holy Scriptures, so that 
he was esteemed a kind of prodigy. He added pray- 
er to study, and acquired such reputation by his 
learning and piety, that the great school of Alexan- 
dria was committed to his care. He was born about 
the year 3(08, and lived four-score and five years. 
He composed commentaries on the Scriptures and 
several other works, which are lost. His book 
against the Macedonian heretics is extant in St. Je- 
rom's Latin translation. 

St. Jerom wrote the lives of St. Paul, the first 
hermit : of St. Hilar ion, and of St. Malchus the 
anchoret, with a most useful catalogue of illustrious 
men, and ecclesiastical writers. He drew his pen 
against the Luciferian schismatics, and ably re- 
futed the impious errors of Helvidius, Jovinian, 
Vigilantius, Eunomius, Pelagius, &c. for the holy- 
doctor could sr.fTer no heresy to pass without cen- 
sure. A new edition of St. Jerom's works has been 
published in ten volumes, folio, by an Italian Ora- 
torian, and another by Dom Martinuay, a Maurist 
Monk, with the life of this father, and many useful 
notes. But nothing has rendered the name of St> 



178 HISTORY OF THE 

Jerom so famous, as his critical labours on the ho- 
ly Scriptures. Having retired to the sacred grotto 
of Bethlehem, he undertook immense pains in order 
to expound these divine oracles, lie read all the 
interpreters, and searched all the histories both sa- 
cred and profane, that could give any light to this 
arduous undertaking He seems to have been rais- 
ed by God, through a special Providence, for this 
purpose, and to have been inspired and divinely as- 
sisted therein. He composed from the original He- 
brew and from the Greek, that version of the Bible, 
which all the Western churches have received un- 
der the name of the Latin Vulgate^ and which is 
now every where in use. St. Prosper tells us in 
his chronicle, that this great doctor, after a life of 
penance and labours, was released from the prison 
of his body in the year 420, on the 30th of Septem- 
ber, and consequently in the 9 1st year of his age. 

The common suffrage of all antiquity has ranked 
St. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, among the four 
great doctors of the Latin Church. He received 
the episcopal consecration in the )ear 374, in the 
reign of Valentinian I. and purged the diocese of 
Milan of the leaven of the A nan heresy with won- 
derful success. His instructions were enforced by 
an admirable innocence and purity of manners, > 
prayer, rigorous abstinence, and frequent fasts. — 
He devoted himself entirely to the service of his 
flock, and every day offered the holy sacrifice of 
the altar for his people. Epist. 20. His charities 
were as extensive as the necessities of human na- 
ture, and he styled the poor, his stewards and trea- 
surers, in whose hands he deposited his revenues. 
He even caused the gold vessels of the Church to 
be broken and melted down for the redemption of 
captives. He is said to have first introduced into 
the West the custom of singing hymns in the Church, 
several of which he composed, and are still used in 
the divine service. After the death of Valentinian I. 
and of Gratian his eldest son, the Empress Justina, 
widow of Valentinian I. and mother of Valentinian 
II. residing then at Milan, and being a violent abet- 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 179 

tor of A nanism, persecuted the Catholics of that 
city, and used her utmost endeavours to expel their 
holy Prelate St. Ambrose, because he refused to de- 
liver up the Basilics to the Arians, to hold their as- 
semblies therein. But an end was put to this perse- 
cution by the discovery of their relics of SS. Gerva- 
sius and Protasius, in the year 386, as St. Augustine 
testifies. St Ambrose gives an account thereof, 
Ep. 2. and in two sermons, which he preached on 
the occasion of the translation of these relics to a 
new Church which at present is called from him the 
Ambrosian Basilic. He assures us, that many posses- 
sed persons were delivered, and many sick heal- 
ed by those relics, and by the towels and handker- 
chiefs laid upon them. In particular, he mentions 
a blind man named Severus, who was miraculously 
cured during the translation, by touching the bier, 
on which the relicks lay, with an handkerchief, and 
then applying it to his eyes. He had been blind se- 
veral years, was known to the whole city, and the 
miracle was performed before a prodigious number 
of people, as St. Augustine, who was then at Milan, 
assures us in three several parts of his works. St. 
Ambrose made the administration of the Sacrament 
of penance a chief part of his pastoral care. St. 
Paulinus tells us, that whenever any person confes- 
sed their sins to him, in order to receive penance, 
he shed such an abundance of tears, as to make the 
penitent also weep. In his writings he explains all 
the parts and duties of penance. Speaking of the 
obligation of confessing sins, he says, 1. 2. de Pcenit. 
c. 6. " If thou wilt be justified, confess thy crime, 
" foran humble confession loosens the bonds of sin." 
In his two books Of Pen anc e, against the Novatians, 
he shows that absolution is to be given to penitents 
for all sins, however grievous, provided their peni- 
tence be condign and sincere, in his book On the Mys- 
teries, he exhorts the faithful to frequent communion, 
because the holy Eucharist is our spirit, food, and 
daily nourishment. He expounds the ceremonies of 
Baptism and Confirmation, and the sacrament of the 
Eucharist in the clearest terms. After having ex- 



180 HISTORY OF THE 

plained the eminent types of the Eucharist, as the 
sacrifice of Melchisedech, the manna, and the wa- 
ter flowing out of the rock, he urges the example 
of the rod of Moses changed into a serpent, and se- 
veral other miracles, to show that the power of con- 
secration changes nature itself. " Jesus Christ, says 
" he, had real flesh, which was fastened on the 
a cross, and laid in the sepulchre. The Eucharist 
" is the true sacrament of this flesh. Christ him- 
a self assures us of it. This is, says he, my Body, 
" Before the benediction of these heavenly words, 
" it is of another nature, after the consecration, it i3 
" the body. If man's benediction has been capable 
" of changing the nature of things, what shall we 
" say of the divine consecration, wherein the very 
" words of our Saviour himself operate ? The word 
u of Jesus Christ, which could make that out of 
" nothing which was not, can it not change that 
& which is, into what it was not i" St. Ambrose 
wrote three books in praise of the holy state of Vir- 
ginity, a treatise on Widowhood, a work on the Di- 
vinity of the Holy Ghost, another on the Incarnation, 
and five books on the Trinity , which are an excel- 
lent confutation of the Arian heresy. In his funeral 
discourse on Valentinian the younger, who was mur- 
dered in 392, at twenty years of age, whilst a ca- 
techumen, the holy doctor says : Lijt ufi your hands 
with me, O fie o file ! Let us with fiious earnest7iess beg 
refiose for his soul. He died on the 4th of April, 
in the year 397. 

St. Augustine, a native of Tagaste in Africa, was 
one of the most glorious doctors and brightest lu- 
minaries of the Church since the days of the Apos- 
tles. His very name is an eulogium that raises an 
exalted idea, and commands profound respect. Hie 
conversion happened in the year 386, the thirty se- 
cond of his age. He was baptized by St. Ambrose 
on Easter-eve, in 387, ordained priest by Valerius, 
about the end of the year 390, and consecrated Bi- 
shop in 395. He was a perfect model of penance, 
of humility, of piety, of charity, of gentleness, 
and every Christian virtue. There perhaps never 



CHIT&CH OF CiARSIX. 

was a man endowed by nature with a mof*e affec- 
tionate and friendly soul. In him, as in a mirror, 
maybe seen a perfect Bishop, such as St. Paul de- 
scribes. He exercised hospitality in his episcopal 
house, and engaged all the priests, deacons, and sub- 
deacons, who' lived with him, to renounce all pro- 
perty, and to embrace the rule and manner of life 
he established there. Herein he was imitated by 
several other Bishops, and this was the original of 
regular canons, in imitation of the Apostles. Pos- 
sidius tells us, that his table was frugal ; that at it 
he loved rather reading, or literary conferences, 
than secular conversation, and to warn his guests 
to shun detraction he had the following verses in 
their view : 

" Quisquis amat diciis absentum rodere ~oitam ; 
Hanc mensam vetitam noverit esse sibi." 
This board allows no -vile detractor place, 
Whose tongue shall charge the absent with disgrace. 

His labours were immense, and his zeal for the house 
of God, and for the Salvation of souls, was indefati- 
gable. All his voluminous writings plainly show 
how full his soul was of the love of God. The 
Benedictine edition of his works, in eleven tomes, 
folio, is more correct than any other. Divine Pro- 
vidence raised him up to be an invincible champion 
of faith, and a bulwark for the defence of the truth, 
against the numerous brood of heresies, that started 
up in the fourth and fifth centuries. He pursued 
the Manicheans, the Arians, the Donatists, and 
other sectaries of his days through the various 
mazes and labyrinths of their errors and delusions, 
and destroyed the many-headed hydra. To him is 
the Church indebted, as to the chief instrument of 
God, in overthrowing the dangerous and formidable 
heresy that was broached and propagated by Pela- 
gius, a Briton, by Celestius, a Scotchman (a fellow, 
says St Jerom, bloated with Scotch gruels) and by 
tiieir successors the Semi-pelagians of Lerns and 
Marseilles. In his book against the Fundamental 
Epistle of Manes, c. 4. he lays down his reasons 
Q 



I8i HISTORY OF THE 

for adhering to the Catholic Church in these terms : 
" Several motives keep me in the bosom of the Ca- 
;<i tholic Church. The general consent of nations 
il and people : an authority grounded upon miracles,, 
" upheld by hope, perfected with charity, and con- 
-" firmed by antiquity : a succession of Bishops de- 
*• scending from the see of St. Peter to our time, and 
^ the name of Catholic, which is so peculiar to the 
^ true Church. —I would not believe the Gospel, if 
i; the authority of the Church did mot move me 
• ; thereto/' In his psalm against the Donatist schis- 
matics, he says to them, " Come, brethren, if ye 
w have a mind to be ingrafted in the vine. It is a 
" pity to see you lie in this maimer lopped off from 
ci the stock. Reckon up the prelates in the very 
* { see of Peter ; and in that order of fathers see 
,; which has succeeded which. This is the rock 
<; over which the proud gates of hell prevail not." 

In his 2()th book against Faustus, he says, that 
" the Catholics honoured the saints and holy mar- 
" tyrs, in order to partake of their merits, to be. 
- assisted by their prayers, and excited to imitate 
i; their examples, but never paid to them the wor- 
i; ship of I atria, which is due to God alone, nor of- 
* ; fered sacrifice to them, but only to God in thanks- 
" giving for their graces." In his sermons he often 
Inculcates assiduous meditation on the four last 
tilings, frequently mentions Purgatory, and strongly 
recommends prayer and sacrifices for the repose of 
; lie faithful departed. Serm. 172. He speaks of ho- 
;V images of Christ, St Peter and Paul, St. Stephen, 
and of the respect due to the sign of the cross, and 
of miracles wrought by it, and by the relics of 
martyrs. Serm. 88. and 218. Several of his letters 
> many excellent and learned treatises, which 
contain admirable instructions for the practice of 
perfect virtue. In his 36. 54. and 65. Epis. to Ja- 
iiiarius, he lays down this principle, that a custom 
universally received in the Church, must be looked 
upon as a rule settled by the Apostles, or by a ge- 
neral council, and I. 4. de Bapt. c. 6. he says, that 
when any doctrine is found generally received in 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 1 $$ 

the Church in any age whatsoever, whereof there 
is no certain author or beginning to be found, then 
it is sure that such a doctrine comes down from Christ 
and his Apostles. In other parts of his writings, 
he speaks of the observance of the lent, and of the 
fasts on Wednesdays and Fridays, and of several 
important points of faith and discipline. Amonj* 
other things, he says there, that though the faithful 
cit first communicated after supper, the Apostles af- 
terwards ordained, that out of reverence to so great 
a sacrament, all should communicate fasting. He 
says also, that they do well who communicate daily, 
provided it be done worthily, and with the humility 
of Zacheus, when he received Christ under his 
roof; but that they are also to be commended, who 
sometimes imitate the humble centurion, and set 
apart only Sundays or certain days for communicat- 
ing, in order to do it with greater devotion, He of- 
ten enforces the necessity of doing penance, and the 
obligation and advantages of alms-deeds. He men- 
tions his own frequent indispositions, and says, " he 
" was confined to his bed under violent pain," but 
adds : " Though I suffer, yet I am well, because I 
" am as God would have me to be. 5 ' In his 84 
Epist. he says, " All the martyrs that are with 
44 Christ, intercede for us. Their prayers never 
" cease, so long as we continue our sighs " The 
Emperor Theodosius sent a special messenger into 
Africa to invite this eminent Doctor to the general 
council that was summoned to meet at Ephesus, 
against Nestorius, but he was departed to eternal 
bliss on the 28th of August, in the year 430, and in 
the seventy-sixth year of his age, forty of which he 
spent in the labours of the ministry. St. Possiclius 
informs us, that he was present in the city of Hippo, 
when the holy sacrifice of the mass was offered to 
God for his recommendation, before he was buried, 
in the same manner that St. Augustine himself, I. &^ 
c. 12. Confess, mentions to have been done for the 
soui of his pious mother Monica, when she died at 
Ostia in Italy. 
St. Optatus, Bishop of Milevum in Numidia, was 



S4« IfJSl'CIlY CF THE 



-also ail illustrious champion of the Church in the-fourlTl 
age. St. Augustine names him with St. Cyprian 
and St, Hilary, among those who had passed from 
the dark shades of Paganism to the light of faith, and 
carried into the Church the spoils of Egypt, that is, 
human science and eloquence. He was the first 
Catholic prelate who undertook by his writings to 
•otem the tide of the Oonatist schism, which took 
Its rise in Africa, front a circumstance that happened 
in the persecution of Dioclesian, by the Traditors 
delivering the holy Scriptures, for fear cf torments 
and death, into the hands of the persecutors, that 
they might be burnt. Parmenian, the successor of 
Donates the schismatical Bishop of Carthage, and a 
mart weil versed in the art of sophistry, and capable 
eS covering the worst cause with specious glosses, 
had written five books in defence of his sect. 
Against this Goliah, St. Optatus stepped forth, strip- 
ped him of his armour, in which he trusted, and 
turned all his artillery against himself. He wrote 
six books against Parmenian, and gave the Hydra a 
mortal blow, though the Donatists were very nu- 
merous ill Africa for above a hundred yet rs, till the 
zeal of St. Augustine almost extinguished their fac- 
tion. About the year o47, a sect of fanatics, called 
Circu7?iccllio?js^ sprung up among the DonatUts, who 
pretending to devote themselves to martyrdom, 
wandered about for some months or years, pamper- 
ir.g themselves as victims, fed for sacrifice, and at 
length cast themselves from rocks, or into rivers, 
or any other way laid violent hands upon them- 
selves, which death they called martyrdom. Many 
of them compelled strangers whom they met on the 
high roads to murder them. Some Catholics, who 
met them in their mad phrenzy, to save their own 
lives, and not to imbrue their hands in the blood of 
these fanatics, insisted first upon binding them, be- 
fore they could proceed to do them this desired 
good turn in sacrificing them ,* but when they were 
tied, beat them till they came to their senses, and 
were contented to live, as Theodoret assures US. 
8uch arc the wild chimeras and -extravagances into 



CHURCH OF CHRF3T. 135 

which men are led, when they have once lost the 
anchor of truth, and their minds are set afloat on tho 
tide of passions. St. Optatus pursued them through 
the endless mazes of their errors, and laid open 
their hypocrisy, pretended zeal, and inconsistency, 
in separating themselves from the Catholic Church? 
as if her sanctity could be defiled by admitting peni- 
tent Traditors to her communion, Whilst they pass- 
ed over such proceedings among themselves. Ho 
showed them, that they were but a small number of 
rebels, cooped up in one little corner of a single 
country, that they were branches lopped off irora 
the vine, and separated from the stock, and conse- 
quently that they had no right whatsoever to un- 
church an infinite number of Christians in the East 
and in the West, and spread all over the world. It 
is evident from the writings of this holy Doctor, 
that the Blessed Eucharist was then kept in the 
churches after the sacrifice no less than at present, 
and that the Donatists used and reverenced the holy 
oblation or mass, and all the sacraments, though 
they pretended those administered out of their own 
sect, were void and null, and only holy among them- 
selves, for like unto the Pharisees and Novatians, 
blinded by their passions, they boasted of their 
great purity and sanctity, and did not see the inward 
uncleanness of their own hearts, defiled by pride- 
and disobedience. St. Optatus reproached them 
with pulling down the altars, where Jesus Christ 
rests at certain times, and with breaking the cha- 
lices, which carried the blood of Jesus Christ. No- 
thing in fine can be more clear, than the terms in 
which he frequently expresses himself about the 
real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the 
Eucharist, and about the adoration that is due to 
this sacrament. 

St. Eustathius, first Bishop of Bersea in Syria, and 
afterwards translated to the Patriarchal see of An- 
tioch, confessed the faith of Christ before the Pagan 
persecutors with heroic constancy, Su Jerom calls 
him a sounding 1 trumpet, and says, he was consum- 
mate in sacred and profane learning, and the ft?** 
Q % 



186 HISTORY OF THE 

who employed his pen against the Avians. His ele- 
gant works against them have not reached us, but 
his treatise on the Pythomssa, or Witch of Endor, 
is still extant, where he undertakes to prove against 
Origen, that this witch neither did, nor could call 
up the soul of Samuel, but only a spectre, or devil 
representing Samuel in order to deceive Saul. No- 
thing more enhances the virtue of this holy prelate, 
than the invincible constancy and patience with 
which he suffered the most reproachful accusation, 
with which his enemies falsely charged him, and the 
unjust deposition and banishment which were in- 
flicted on him. 

St. Philogonius, Bishop of Antioch, was renown- 
ed for his eloquence, and still more for the purity of 
his manners and the sanctity of his life in the fourth 
century. He strenuously defended the Catholic 
faith before the Assembly of the council of Nice. 

St. Nilus, anchoret and father of the Church, 
lived also in this age. His works were in great re- 
quest among the ancients. They demonstrate the 
excellent perfection of his virtue and his great talent 
of eloquence. His letters have been printed in four 
books, folio. They are short, but elegant, and writ- 
ten with spirit and vehemency, especially when any 
vice is the theme. 

In this century the Church extended her bounda- 
ries very considerably, by the wonderful conver- 
sions that were wrought by the miracles and preach- 
ing of the holy Bishop P'rumentius, apostle of /Ethio- 
pia, and of the empire of the Axumites. Thou- 
sands also of holy monks, anchorets, hermits, and 
ascetics, peopled the deserts in this century, and 
were formed into regular monasteries. The Pro- 
phet Elias, and St. John the Baptist, sanctified the 
deserts in the old law, and Jesus Christ himself was 
;. model of the heremitical life, during his forty days 
fast in the Wilderness, bt. Paul, called the first 
hermit, spent nine y \ears in the desert, where be- 
ing fed, like Elias, by a raven, he died in the year 
342, in the 113th year of his age. St. Anthony, 
a young gentleman of Egypt; is generally looked 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 18T 

upon as the patriarch of monks, and the author of 
the monastic life in the Eastern parts of the Church. 
He was born in the year 251. Hearing on a cer- 
tain day in the church these words of the Gospel - r 
If you are willing to be fierfect^go, sell all you have y 
give to the fioor, and you shall have a treasure in Hea- 
wen, he applied them to himself, and returning home 
sold his goods, and distributed them to the poor. 
Actuated then with an ardent desire of greater per- : 
fection, he retired from the dangers and corruptions- 
of the world into a solitude, there to attend solely 
to his eternal salvation, and to devote the remainder 
of his days to the spiritual exercises of penance and 
mortification. His holy life and edifying example 
soon attracted an amazing number of disciples from 
the neighbouring countries, and they made such a 
progress in the way of perfection by the many ex- 
cellent lessons of piety which he prescribed, that 
they became the admiration of the world. Their 
habitations were so many temples, where they watch* 
ed, fasted, and chaunted psalms in praise of the 
Lord. To avoid idleness and procure themselves a 
corporal subsistence, they laboured with their hands> 
and employed the time that was not devoted to pray- 
er, in tilling the earth, in making matts, baskets,, 
sack-cloth, or other mean things, proper to inspire 
and entertain humility. The profit of their manu- 
al labour, above the little pittance, which was ne- 
cessary for their support, enabled them to bestow 
considerable alms on the poor. Nor did this labour 
interrupt the prayer of the heart, for they always 
prayed or meditated at their work, which they were 
taught to perform in the spirit of penance, and to 
offer up to God, in union with the laborious life and 
su fie rings of Jesus Christ. Their food, as St, John 
Chrysostom tells us, was bread ste ped in water, 
with a little salt, oil, herbs, pulse, and sometimes a 
few dates. They wore no shoes, and had no other 
bed than a mat spread on the bare ground. Their 
garments were made of the skins of goats, or of 
camels' hair, that is, coarse camlet, any thing that 
was soft, being looked upon as unsuitable to their 



18S HISTORY OF THE 

penitential state of life. The regimen they follow- 
ed strengthened their constitution, prevented disor- 
ders, and prolonged their life to o considerable old 
age. Si. Anthony their founder lived to upwards oi 
a hundred years. The same course of life was em- 
braced by S. Pachomius, who was the first that drew 
up a monastic rule in writing, in the year 34 8. The 
writers of his life assert, that he had the sacrifice 
of the mass offered for the soul of every one of his 
monks that died. He departed this life in a very 
advanced age, and left several thousands of disciples 
in deep affliction for the loss of their spiritual father 
and director. St. Mucarius the elder, lived sixty 
years in the vast desert of Scete, eighty miles be- 
yond Nitria, and a hundred and twenty from Alex- 
andria. Innumerable religious persons flocked to 
him from all sides, and put themselves under his di- 
rection. Til le mom informs us, that St. Macarius 
the younger hud five thousand monks under his in- 
spection at Nitria, in I Ms of Thebais, or 
Upper Egypt In the close of the fourth century, 
Caspian reckoned fifty monasteries on Mount Nitria, 
inhabited by an amazing number of religious, wh6 
served God there in the exercises of fervent penance 
and contemplation ; assembling in Church on Sun- 
days to celebrate the divine mj steries. ..take 
of the holy communion. They fasted every day 
till after sunset, except Sundays and the paschal 
time, and lived for the most part on bread and water. 
They rose at midnight, and met twice in the day to 
pray together in common. They frequently prayed 
with their arms stretched out in the form of a cross. 
They slept little, anu observed great silence. They 
built little cells for their lodgings, which resembled 
sepulchres rather than dwelling places. Bt P*iae« 
inon, St. Pambo, Si. John of Egypt, who died in the 
year 394, and in the 9oth year of his age; St. Ar- 
Sdnius, wno after spending 55 years in ti e resort, 
died in the 95th year of his age, and aeveraJ other 
holy anchorets followed this course of life, and de- 
voted themselves entirely to the spiritual exercises 
of penance and heavenly contemplation. The - 



CHUB 3 H OF CHRIST. 189 

course of life was also embraced by St. Macedonius, 
St. iiiiarion, and St. Basil, and quickly propagated 
through Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, and through 
"the deserts of Pontus and Cappadccia, under several 
wise regulations, highly conducive to Christian per- 
fection. The austerities of all these inhabitants of 
the desert were not only the edification of the faith- 
ful, but also the admiration even of infidels, who 
were amazed to see that such multitudes of Chris- 
tians had attained to so wonderful a victory over 
their passions, so sublime a degree of virtue, and so 
heavenly a temper, as to have seemed rather angels 
than men, " For my part/' said St. Sulpicius Seve- 
rus, Dial. 1. c. 26. " so long as i shall enjoy life and 
" retain my senses, I shall ever celebrate the monks 
" of Egypt, praise the anchorets, and admire the 
" hermits." " There have I seen," says Heraclides, 
* many fathers leading an angelic life, and walking 
11 after the example of Jesus/' Their long lives 
are chiefly ascribed to their regularity, moderate la- 
bour, and great abstemiousness, so that their exam- 
ple, us well as the experience of all ages, confirms 
the old proverb ; that to eat lcng } a person oug/tt 
.Co eat little. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The Emperor Julian apostatizes and attempts to re- 
establish Paganism^ i?e. 

IN vain had the Arians, supported by the power 
of Constaniius, exerted their cruelty against the or- 
thodox, and endeavoured to subvert the doctrine of 
the Church of Christ. The faith increased under 
axes, and the blood of martyrs multiplied the num- 
ber of its professors. The Arian heresy, and the 
Donatist schism, seemed indeed at first to threaten 
the utter ruin of the Church, had she not been se- 
cured by the promises of Jesus Christ. But as she 
stood the shock against the united force both of the 
Jews and Gentiles, so she remained immoveable and 
incorruptible against lac deceitful reasonings, out-.. 



190 HISTORY OF THE 

rageous impieties, and sacrilegious violences of the 
Arians and Donatists and their abettors. The edi- 
fice of the Church could not be thrown clown by 
these storms, because he that built it was himself 
the cor "«% and had declared it should s 

for ever. The Emperor Julian, who succeeded Con- 
stantius in the year 361, learning by experience 
how weak and ineffectual a means force and vio- 
lence was, resolved to change his artillery and man- 
ner of as^ult, and not to employ open persecution, 
like his predecessor, but dissimulation and seduc- 
tion, in which lie was the most complete master. At 
first he affected a show of great moderation, but was 
a more dangerous persecutor than Xero or D. 
and the most implacable and most crafty instrument 

i the Devil ever employed, for the purpose of 
undermining the faith, and sapping the foundation* 
of the Christian religion. Through the influence 
of some Pagan philosophers with whom he had stu- 
died at Athens, hs renounced Christianity, openly 
professed Paganism, and resolved to re-establish the 
worship of idols. Hence ke was surnamed the 

fofe. He pretended to efface the character of 
his baptism, by besmearing himself with the blood 
of impious victims He commanded the cross, and 
name of Jesu s Christ, which Constantine the Great 
had placed in the Labarum, or chief standard of the 
army, to be struck out, and had the standards re- 
duced to the ancient form, used under the P 
emperors, on which the images of false gods 
represented. He recalled indeed the exiled 
and allowed every one the free exorcise of reli 
but be adopted other crafty measures, which ap- 
peared to him more effectual, to harass and op| 

;ians; for he fomented divisions between 
lies and i iiS, in order to weaken 

tie by the other, and at length to give them both 
a deadly blow. He was as prodigal in grantii 

to the Pagans, whilst the Christians experi- 
enced hot! [lis part but conte- artions, 
and disgraces. He exacted considerable sums of 
money from them, for the purpose of repairinj 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. !9i 

Pagan temples, to which he caused the sacred ves- 
sels and ornaments of the churches to be removed, 
He revoked the privileges of the ecclesiastics, and 
supprc e had as- 

signee mce of I _y, and of 

the sacred virgins and widov ■ d to the ser- 

vice of God; He levied b :.d seized 

the estates of C 5, saying in raillery, the 

did it to oolite them to foil 
recommended poverty. Where 
ed of this injurious treatmen 
words of Christ : Blessed are the 
through derision, that evam 

facilitate their admission inti m of Hea- 

ven. He ordered tl - call- 

ed Christians but Galileans. 
from b fices in the state, or 

functions of n. *s, under tl ..ai the 

;1 forbid t use of t" . He ex- 

cluded them from the rights of citize 
not allow them to defend themselves in the com 
justice 9 because 

engage in He thought it 

impossible for him to r in his endeavours to 

undermine the Christian Religion, so I ls Pas- 

tors and defenders were the most i of the 

empire, such as St. il, St. Gre- 

;n, St. Hilary, Apollh.aris, Diodortfl 
of Tarsus fee For the Chris- 

tians to teach either grammar, rl >r philoso- 

phy, and deprived them of all the advantages of a 
learned education, saying, that Christians should he 
tg^c: . ran literature, and believe without rea- 

\g* This kind of persecution by stratagems, ar- 
s, and caresses, might perhaps have been de- 
I, and destroyed more souls than the cruci- 
al Dicclesian. if God, Who always protects his 
Church, had not defeated the infernal project, by 
ing the reign of its impious author. 
Whilst Julian was endeavouring by these crafty 
means to destroy the Christian Church, he fun 
ed a new proof of the divinity of its heavenly found- 



1.9.2 mSTOilY OF THE 

er, and of the truth of his sacred oracles. He was 
sensible that the prophecies announced the ruin oi 
the Temple of Jerusalem as irreparable, and that 
Jesus Christ had foretold, that one stone of it should 
not be left upon another. Wherefore, in order to 
falsify the Scriptures, and discredit the Christian re- 
ligion by bringing the scandal of imposture upon 
its divine Author, he undertook to rebuild the Tem- 
ple, about the beginning of the year 362, and, 
though he did not love the Jews, he invited them 
to concur in this enterprise. Sozomen tells us, that 
he wrote a letter to their chiefs, wherein he gave 
them every encouragement to repair immediately to 
Jerusalem, in order to re-establish their ancient 
worship, which was then abolished, as the Temple, 
wherein their bloody sacrifices could only be offer- 
ed, lay in ruins, and of course, the whole system 
of their religion was annihilated. He even pro- 
mised to give orders to his treasurers to furnish mo- 
ney, and every thing necessary, and he sent Alipius, 
one of his confidential officers, to the very spot, to 
enforce the execution of his orders. The news was 
no sooner spread abroad, than the Jews, elated with 
joy, and triumphing over the Christians, flocked 
irom all parts to Jerusalem, and contributed large 
sums of money towards carrying on the building. 
The Jewish women stript themselves even of their 
most costly ornaments, to contribute towards the 
expense. Immense quantities of stone, brick, tim- 
ber, and other materials were prepared. Thousands 
of workmen were speedily assembled from all quar- 
ters, and lodged in porticos and other adjoining 
buildings, under a number of overseers, who were 
charged to make them labour without loss of time, 
and complete the undertaking as soon as possible. 
It is related by historians, that some of the pick- 
axes, spades, and baskets were made of silver, for 
the honour of the work. When all things were in 
readiness the workmen began to clear the ground, 
to dig up the earth, and to remove the ancient found- 
ations. The Jews of both sexes, and of all degrees, 
both young and old, men, women, and children, 



ffl 



COIURCH OF CHRIST. 1&3 

bore a share in the labour. The Jewish women 
helped to dig the ground with alacrity, and carried 
away the rubbish in their aprons, and in the skirts 
of their gowns. St. Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem^ 
seeing all these mighty preparations without any 
concern, as Rufinus assures us, Hist. 1. i0. c. 37* 
he foretold with the greatest confidence, that fh© 
Jews far from being able to rebuild their ruined 
Temple, would be the very instruments whereby 
the prophecy of Christ would be more fully accom- 
plished. The event justified the Saint's prediction, 
for until then the ancient foundations, and some 
ruins of the walls of the Temple subsisted, and tne 
Jews, by demolishing these ruins with their own 
hands, concurred to the accomplishment of what our 
Saviour had foretold, that one stone should not be, 
left on another, When they began to dig the ntw 
foundation, the finger of the Aimighty visibly defeat- 
ed the rash undertaking, for what the workmen h x& 
thrown up was, by repeated earthquakes, cast back 
into the trenches, and prodigious heaps of the lime, 
sand, and other loose material-?, were carried away 
by dreadful storms and whirlwinds. And when 
Aiipius and the projectors earnestly pressed on the 
work, horrible balls and flames of fire bursting out 
of the earth near the foundation, repelled the stones, 
melted down the iron instruments, burned or scorched 
the workmen, drove them to a distance, and obliged 
them to give over the enterprise, not once only, but 
as often as they ventured to renew their attempt. 
At the same time, the statue which Julian had caus- 
ed to be erected to himself, in place of the statue, 
which had been erected in honour of Christ, by the 
woman whom he had miraculously cured of the he- 
morrhoid, was cast down by fire from Heaven, 
and a flaming cross appeared in the sky over Jeru- 
salem, surrounded with a luminous circle, as if it 
were to celebrate the triumph of Jesus Christ, and 
to confound the vanity of the impotent Julian. 
These phenomena, which are attested by a number 
of Christian and Pagan writers, astonished all the 
spectators, and induced many Jews, and still m<*re 
R 



194 History of the 

Heathens, to confess the divinity of Jesus Christ? 
and cry out for Baptism. But the unhappy Julian 
continued still blind and hardened in the midst of 
such a flash of conviction, and undertook an expe- 
dition into Persia, with an army of sixty- five thou- 
sand men. When he was on his march, he ordered 
Juventius and Maximinus, two officers in his foot 
guards, to be scourged and beheaded, because they 
refused to sacrifice to his idols. He was deceived 
almost in every step by ridiculous omens, oracles, 
and augurs. All the Pagan deities wherever he 
passed promised him victories. The oracles of 
Delos, Delphos, and Dodona, gave him the like as- 
surances. When he arrived at Antioch, he was 
informed that the famous idol of Apollo, which was 
then worshipped in a temple at Daphne, five miles 
from Antioch, had been struck dumb by the neigh- 
bourhood of the relics of St. Babylas, Martyr and[ 
Bishop of Antioch, which were deposited in a small 
church near the profane temple. Julian command- 
ed that the Christians should immediately remove 
the shrine of the Saint from Daphne to some distant 
place. The Christians obeyed the order, and with 
great solemnity carried the sacred relics to Antioch 
in procession, singing on this occasion the psalms 
^vhich ridicule the vanity and feebleness of idols, 
repeating alter every verse, " May they who adore 
" idols, and glory in false gods, blush with shame, 
« and be covered with confusion." The following 
evening, fire and lightning fell from the heavens on 
the temple of Apollo, and reduced to ashes all the 
rich and magnificent ornaments with which it was 
embellished, and the idol itself, leaving only the 
walls standing. Julian was much enraged hereat. 
However, he durst not restore the idol, lest the like 
thunder should fall on his own head ; but he breath- 
ed fury and vengeance against the Christians, espe- 
cially of Antioch, and intended that they should 
feel the fatal effects of his wrath, at his return from 
the Persian war, if God had not defeated his vain 
projects by his unhappy death in that expedition. 
Jie was made a subject of mockery, and riciicale a* 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 195 

Antioch, on account of his low stature, gigantic 
gait, great goat's beard, and bloody sacrifices, in 
answer to which, he wrote a low and insipid satyr, 
called the Misofiogon, or Beard-hater. Theodoret 
and Sozomen relate, that having rashly ventured in- 
to the wilds and deserts of Persia, he and his army- 
were defeated in June, 363. Finding himself mor- 
tally wounded in the battle, with an arrow from an 
unknown hand, he was carried into his tent, where 
he miserably perished, throwing up a handful of 
]>lood towards Heaven, and crying out, Vicisti Ga- 
UUe, Thou has conquered, O Galilean, thou hast 
conquered. Thus perished the Apostate Julian, so 
much boasted and extolled by the false sages of our 
age. The Divine vengeance also overtook his un- 
cle, Count Julian, governor of the East, who hav- 
ing in like manner become an apostate from the 
faith, persecuted the Christians, seized the sacred 
vessels of the Church, and after ordering the holy 
priest Theodoret, and SS. Bonosus, and Maximilian, 
two officers of distinguished virtue, to be cruelly 
tortured, caused them to be beheaded. Shortly af- 
ter he was seized with a terrible disease in his bowels, 
by which the adjacent parts of his body were pu- 
trefied, and bred such a quantity of worms, that all 
the art of physicians could not destroy them, nor 
give him any relief. They crawled still deeper, 
and penetrated into the live flesh, and came out 
with his excrements by his mouth, which had ut- 
tered so many blasphemies. Philostorgius says, h& 
remained forty days without speech or sense. He 
then came to himself, and in his last extremity ac- 
knowledged his impiety, like Antiochus, before he 
expired. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Of the fiersecutitjiis raisd by Faiens> the Vandals and 
Persians^ and of the second General Council^ un- 
der Theodosius the Great, 

THE orthodoxy of the Emperor Jovian, who suc- 
ceeded Julian the Apostate, put a stop to the per- 



i-9S HISTORY OF THE 

sedition of the Catholics, till the reigri of Valeni, 
who was raised to the Imperial Throne in the East, 
whilst his brother, Valentinian, a true Catholic, go- 
verned in the West. Valens was the last of the 
Roman Emperors who protected Arianism. Se- 
duced by the persuasions of his wife, he promised, 
upon cath, that he would promote the cause of that 
sect. He openly declared in favour of it in the 
year 567, and violently persecuted the orthodox 
bishops, and the monks in the deserts, who w r ere 
known to distinguish themselves in supporting the 
true religion. He caused the streets of Antioch to 
swim with innocent blood, and many houses to be 
consumed with flames. He ordered fourscore 
ecclesiastics at Niccmedia to be put together on 
board a ship, and the ship, when out at sea, to be 
set en fire, that they might all perish. The Lom- 
bard?, also- -and Ostrogoths, or Eastern Goths, who 
settled in Italy — and the Visigoths, or Western 
Goths, who proceeded from the Southern parts of 
France into Spain — and the Vandals, who passed 
from Spain into Africa, with Genseric their King, 
ycre infected with Arianism, and persecuted the 
orthodox with great fury. Hunneric, the son and 
successor of Genseric, shut up all the Catholic 
Churches in Ids dominions, demolished the monas- 
teries, and banished the bishops and clergy, to the 
number of near five thousand, but the justice of 
God overtook him at length, and he died eaten up 
with worms. Gontiamund and Trasamund, his suc- 
cessors, raised two cruel persecutions, but an end 
was put to their kingdom and power, by Jiclisarius, 
the general of Justinian's army. 

After the death of the Emperor Valens, who, in 
the year 378, was burnt alive, in a cottage near 
Adrianople, by tue Goths, whom he had perverted, 
Arianism lost ground by degrees in the Eastern 
provinces, which were chiefly tainted with it, for 
the Arians began to differ among themselves, and 
split into as many different sects and branches as 
I heads Their case, says St. Hilary, was the 
eMme with tluu of unskilful architects, who are 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 197 

never, pleased with their own work, and who do no- 
thing but build up and pull down. They constant- 
ly changed their creeds, and thus they weakened 
their party, and fell into a confusion, which occasion- 
ed numbers of them to forsake their errors and em- 
brace the Catholic faith. The Goths and Vandals 
were converted in process of time ; and thus the 
formidable heresy of the Arians withdrew itself by 
degrees from the East and West, passed away like 
a thunderbolt, and sunk quite into nothing, so that 
not a single shoot of Arianism was left in the whole 
world, after the entire conversion of the Lombards, 
till it was unhappily revived by some unbelievers in 
the sixteenth century. Such is the nature of every 
heresy : after spreading for a while, it dwindles away 
sooner or later ; which made St. Jude compare here- 
sies to wandering meteors, which seem to blaze for 
a time, but set in eternal darkness. Heresies must 
be, says St. Paul, 1 Cor. 11, 19. that they who are 
afifiroved may be made manifest. They serve as a 
touchstone to distinguish the sound part of Chris- 
tians from the unsound. This was the case of the 
Arian heresy. It was an useful instrument to sepa- 
rate the chaff from the corn, and to purge away all 
dross from the Church. Another storm was raised 
against the Church in this century ; for about the 
year 340, Sapor II. commenced a most violent per- 
secution in the great empire of Persia, which was 
then full of Christians. This persecution continued, 
without intermission, for the space of forty years. 
It was recommended in the year 38u> by King Isde- 
gerdes, and continued under his successors for 
thirty years more, until Chrosroes II. was defeated 
by Heraclius, Emperor of Constantinople. Some 
historians make the number of Christians who were 
crowned with martyrdom in these persecutions, 
amount to two hundred thousand, exclusive of nine- 
ty thousand who were sold for slaves, and partly 
massacred by the Jews. See Sozomen, 1. 2. c. 15 ; 
Cassiodorus, 1. 3. Nicep. 1. 8. c. 27. 

When Gratian, the eldest son of Valentinian T. 
became master of the East, after the death of his 
R 2 



198 HISTORY ©F THE 

uncle Valens, he restored peace to the Church, and 
declared Theodosius, an experienced general, his 
partner and colleague in the empire. Gratian hav- 
ing been afterward treacherously stabbed by An- 
dragathius, general of the usurper Maximus* house, 
and Valentinian II. Gratian's half-brother, hav- 
ing fled from Milan, with his mother Justina, into 
the East, to implore the assistance of the Empe» 
Tor Theodosius against Maximus, this great prince 
and model of Christian emperors, who, until then, 
had been employed in settling the peace of the 
Church and state in the East, came from Con- 
stantinople to Thessalonica, to comfort, in the most 
tender and paternal manner, the distressed remains 
of the family of Valentinian. Having shortly af- 
ter declared war against Maximus the tyrant, he 
gave orders for solemn prayers to be every where 
put up to God to draw down a blessing on his army, 
and sent to entreat the most eminent solitaries in 
Egypt to lift up their hands to Heaven, whilst he 
fought, as St. Augustine informs us, 1. 5. de Civ. 
He then marched with his troops towards the banks 
of the Save, encountered and defeated Maximus, 
entered the city of Rome with great magnificence, 
in a triumphal chariot drawn by elephants, and put 
young Valentinian in possession of the whole 
Western Empire. During his residence at Rome, 
he gained the hearts of the people, by his singular 
clemency and generosity, goodness and humanity. 
He abolished the remains of idolatry, prohibited Pa- 
gan festivals and sacrifices, and caused the temples 
to be stripped of their ornaments, and the idols to be 
broken in pieces. But he preserved those statues 
•which had been made by excellent artists, ordering 
them to be se. up in galleries, or other public places, 
as an ornament to the city. He likewise ordered 
the Pagan temples and idols of Egypt to be demo- 
lished, particularly the famous temples of Bacchus 
and Serapis in Alexandria, with the enormous idol 
that was worshipped there. 

Th< first years of this pious emperor's reign were 
distinguished by his zealous efforts to stop the pro* 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 19.9 

gress of a new blasphemous heresy, that sprung from 
the bosom of Arianism, and attacked the divinity of 
the Holy Ghost. It was broached by Macedonius, 
a Semi-arian Bishop, who had usurped the see of 
Constantinople. To prevent the scandal from spread- 
ing, a Council of one hundred and fifty bishops was 
assembled in that city, and was opened with great 
solemnity in the year 38 1 . The decrees and symbol 
of the council of Nice were there renewed and ra- 
tified, the doctrine of the Church was cleared up and 
explained, the heresy of Macedonius was refuted 
and condemned, and though the Council was not ge- 
neral in the celebration, as it consisted only of the 
Eastern Bishops, yet it is acknowledged to be an 
(Ecumenical? or General Council, by the acceptation 
of the Universal Church, as it was afterwards re- 
ceived and approved by the Pope, and the Bishops 
of the West St. Meletius, the venerable Bishop of 
Antioch, who presided at this Council, dying at Con- 
stantinople, was succeeded by St. Flavian, a perfect 
»odel of meekness and candour. It was this holy 
prelate that reconciled the Emperor Theodosius, by 
a pathetic discourse, to the people of Antioch, after 
the great sedition which happened in that city, in 
the year 387, on occasion of a new tax that was 
levied there But Theodosius unhappily forgot the 
clemency and moderation which he had shown oa 
this occasion, when he received an account of ano- 
ther tumultuous insurrection that happened in Thes- 
sulonica, where the populace stoned Botheric, the 
governor of that city, to death. When the Emperor 
was apprized hereof, instead of checking the im- 
p uosity of his hasty disposition, he suffered himself 
immediately to be carried away by the first transports 
of his passion, and issued a commission, or warranty 
for the soldiery to be let loose for three hours on the 
inhabitants of Thessalonica, till about seven thousand 
of them were massacred, without distinguishing the 
innocent from the guilty. The horror with which 
the news of this tragical scene filled the breast of 
St Ambrose, is not to be expressed. After giving 
tiie Emperor a little time to reflect; and enter into 



2G0 HISTORY OF THE 

himself, he wrote him a letter, wherein he declared, 
that he neither could nor would receive his offering 
at Mass, nor celebrate the divine mysteries before 
him, till he expiated, by an exemplary penance, the 
enormity of the massacre lately committed. The 
emperor, notwithstanding, resolved to go to the 
Church of Milan, according to custom. St. Am- 
brose, meeting him at the church porch, forbid him 
any further entrance. The prince alleging, by way 
of extenuating his guilt, that King David had also 
sinned, the holy Bishop replied, " Him whom you 
v; have followed in sinning, follow also in his re- 
li pentance." Theodosius submitted to this sentence 
as if pronounced by God himself, and returned to 
his palace, bewailing his miserable condition, and 
saying, The Church is open to beggars and slave?, 
and to the meanest of my subjects, but the doors 
of it, and consequently the gates of Heaven also, 
are shut against me. He remained shut up at home 
in his oratory for the space of eight months, clad 
with penitential weeds, imploring mercy and par- 
don, and shedding many tears. When the feast of 
Christmas was come, he went to the enclosure of 
the church, placed himself in the rank of the 
public penitents, prostnae on the ground, and 
striking his breast with grief, and with tears running 
down his cheeks, begging pardon of God in the 
sight of all the people, who were so touched with 
his humility and edifying piety, that they wept and 
prayed with him for a considerable time. In short, 
he made an open confession of his sins, accepted 
and performed the public penance enjoined him by 
St. Ambrose, according to the sacred canons ; for 
the Church, instructed by the word and example 
of the Apostles, was accustomed then to inflict pub- 
lic penance upon public sinners, and these penances 
were determined by the bishops, according to the 
particular circumstances of the case. When charity 
waxed cold, and crimes became more frequent, the 
Church became more rigorous in the use of these 
public penances, in order to put some restraint on 
sinners. Certain regulations, culled ficnitentjat 



canons, were established, by which the cature and 
duration of the penance to be enjoined was deter- 
mined, according to the different kinds of crimes 
committed ; some lasting for one year, some for 
three, some for seven, ten, nay, fifteen, twenty years 
together. This discipline of canonical penance was 
in force both in the Eastern and Western Churches, 
in the second and third century, as is manifest from 
the writings of Tertullian, St. Cyprian, and the Ca- 
Qonicai Epistle of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, who 
lays down the different stages of public penance, 
and describes the four different" classes of penitents, 
viz, the Weefiers, or mourners, who remained in the 
open air, without the gate of the Church ; 2dly, the 
Hearers, who were allowed to remain near the door, 
and to hear the instructions and sermon with the 
catechumens in the lower part of the church ; 3dly, 
the Prostraters, or kneelers, who remained all the 
time of prayer prostrate, or on their knees ; 4th ly, 
the Consistent^ or co-standers, who joined the faith- 
ful in prayer to the end, but were not admitted to 
make their offering at Mass, or to communicate. — 
Tins severe discipline continued in the Church, with 
^litigations and changes, for the space of twelve 
hundred years, after which the use of public pe- 
nance became itss frequent in many places, fell into 
disuse, and was 6han£ed into other works of piety. 
In the primitive ages, no person, how great soever, 
was exempt from the' common rules of doing pe> 
nance, as appears from the examples of Theodosius 
a; Milan* and the illustrious Fabiola at Rome. The 
Bishops, tomed sometimes to 

•- of this discipline, by granting in- 
dulgences on certain extraordinary occasions, at the 
intercession o rs and confessors, or at the joint 

vers of the whole Church, or when the penitent 
showed an extraordinary fervour, and gave u equivo- 
cal proofs of the sincerity of his compunction. Thus 
St. Ambrose, at length, moved by the great ardour 
and most edifying conduct of Theodosius, granted 
him the absolution he prayed for so fervently, and 
admitted him to enter the Church, assist at the holy 



20$ HISTORY OF THE 

mysteries, and partake of the blessed communion. 
In the year 3*5 this great emperor expired in the 
ar us of St. Ambrose, after giving his two sons, 
Honorius and Arcadius, excellent instructions how- 
to govern well, one of them being made Emperor of 
tfie West, the other of the East. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Church of the fifth century. 

The succession of chief pastors in the Chair of 
St Peter was kept up during this century by Si in- 
nocent I St. Zozimus, St. Boniface, I. St. Celestine 
I. St. Sixtus Hi. St. Leo the Great, St. Hilarius, St. 
Simplicius, St. Felix 111 St. Gelasius 1. St. Anasta- 
sius II and St. Symmachus. 

Innocent, a native of Albano, near Rome, was 
unanimously chosen to fill the Pontifical Chair in 
the year 402. In the beginning of his pontificate, 
the Western Empire was afflicted with a dreadful 
fa line and pestilence, occasioned by the irruptions 
of an immense army of Barbarians, that poured in 
upon it on all sides, like a torrent, which, having 
broken down its banks, impetuously spreads itself 
over the whole country. Three different nations 
that inhabited the North side of the Rhine and 
Danube, advancing thence, through Pomerania, into 
the neighbourhood of Palus Macotis, crossed the 
Rhine, and invaded the provinces of Gaul and 
Italy. Ticse northern wolves, as St. Jerom speaks, 
laid waste the whole country between the Alps and 
the Pyrenees, between the Ocean and the Rhine, 
— Epis'.. 11. The Goths, a people originally from 
Gothland, in Sweden, bore a principal share herein. 
Alaric, their King, an enterprising, ambitious ad- 
venturer, animated with the success of his victori- 
ous arms, crossed the Alps and the river Po, carry- 
ing desolation and slaughter with him wherever he 
went. But he received a great overthrow from the 
army of the Emperor Honorius, commanded by 
Stilico; in the year 403, near Polcntia, in Liguria; 



CHURCH OF CHRIST, £03 

Prudentias says, 1. 2. Adv. Sym. that the Roman sol- 
diers began the battle by making the sign of the 
cross on their foreheads. Radagaisus, another Pa- 
gan Prince of the Goths, invaded Italy in the year 
405, with an army, according to some historians, of 
four hundred thousand men, and vowed to sacrifice 
all the Romans to his Gods. He besieged the city 
of Florence, and reduced it to the utmost straits ; 
but the Romans, commanded by Stilico, obtained a 
complete victory over him, without any loss of 
men : for Radagaisus, being struck with a sudden 
panic, immediately fled, and, being taken prisoner, 
with his two sons, was put to death, and his scatter- 
ed troops being also taken, were sold like droves of 
cattle. Notwithstanding these defeats, Alaric re- 
solved to lead his Goths to attack Rome itself ; for, 
as Socrates and Sozomen tell us, he s id, " 1 con- 
" stantly feel an impulse within me that gives me 
" no rest, but presses me to go and destroy that 
" city." He marched, therefore, at the head of his 
army, from Tuscany towards Rome, in the year 409 # 
and having pitched his camp in the neighbour- 
hood, he laid close siege to it. In the year 410, the 
scarcity of provsions occasioned a famine to rage to 
a degree that had never been felt before. « Such 
" was the force of hunger there," says St. Jerom, 
" that they fed upon the most execrable meats; the 
H people tore one another to pieces, to devour their 
<c flesh ; and mothers did not even spare the infants 
" at their breasts, inhumanly eating up what they 
" had lately brought into the world." — Ep. 16. 
Eusebius the historian relates, that Rome was then 
infected with a plague that swept away ten thousand 
inhabitants in a day, for several days, and filled 
the streets with carcasses of the dead. Alaric, 
availing himself of this distress, assaulted the city 
on the 24th of August, and having taken and pil- 
laged it, set it on fire, excepting the church of St. 
Peter and Paul, to which he granted the privilege of 
a sanctuary. 

The fall of Rome was an object of surprise and 
sorrow to many nations, on account of the extraor- 



£04 HISMBY OF THE 

dinary figure it had made in the world. St. Jerom, 
who was then at Bethlehem, lamented (in the words 
of Virgil, describing the conflagration and destruc- 
tion of Troy — iEneid, 1. 2.) the fate of that ancient 
and powerful city, which, after having subsisted 
eleven hundred and sixty years, fell a prey to an 
obscure Goth, who could scarce be said to be 
master of a foot of ground. The Christians shar- 
ed in these public calamities, but by their charity, 
resignation, and patience, they found in them a 
source of solid comfort and spiritual joy, God con- 
verting all things to the good of his elect. The 
holy Pope, Innocent, signalized his zeal, piety, 
and charity on this occasion, and exhorted his flock 
to draw an advantage from their sufferings, by 
making a good use ot them; and so much were the 
Heahens edified at the patience and resignation 
with which they suffered the loss of their goods, 
and hatever was dear, without any murmuring or 
complaint, that they came in crowds, desiring to be 
instructed in the faith, and to be baptizi d The 
letters of this zealous Pontiff are replete with ex- 
cel. ent instructions. In his iettlers to the holy Bi- 
shops, Exuperius and Decentius, he says, that 
absolution is never to be denied to dying penitents, 
and speaks in clear terms of the holy Sacraments 
of Confirmation and Extreme Unction. When, in 
the year 4 1 6, he ratified the decisions of the two 
Atrican Councils, against the errors of Pelagius, 
hi observed, in his answer to the Bishops, that all 
ecclesiastical matters are, by Divine right, to be 
referred to the Apostolic sec, according to the an- 
cient rule, which has always been observed by the 
whole world ; and St. Augustine, who had drawn 
lip the synodal letters, said, on the arrival of Inno- 
cent's confirmation of the two Councils of Car- 
thage and Milevum, u The decisions have been 
* already sent to the Apostolic see : the rescripts 
4< are also come from thence. The cause is now 
44 finished. Would to God the error may at last be 
" at an end." — Seim. 13 l. St. Innocent died in the 
year 417. St. Zosimus governed the Church only 



CHKJRCH OF CIIRISJ&. £05 

one year. St. Boniface was raised to the Ponti- 
ficate, on the 29th of December, in the year 418. 
He testified the highest esteem for the great St. 
Augustine, who addressed to him four books against 
the Pelagians. This holy Pope died towards the 
end of the year 422. Upon his demise St. Celes- 
tine was elected by the wonderful consent of the 
whole city of Rome, as St. Augustine writes. It 
was this holy Pontiff that sent St. Palladius to 
preach the faith to the Scots in North Britain. St. 
Patrick also received a commission from him to 
preach to the Irish, in the year 431. St. Celestine 
died on the first of August, in the year 432. St. 
Sixtus III. governed the Church near eight years. 
He wrote in defence of the grace of God against its 
enemies, and closed his life on the 28th of March, 
in the year 440. 

St. Leo, surnamed the Great^ was raised to the 
first Chair of the Church, and received the Episco- 
pal consecration on the 20th of December, in the 
year 440. He applied himself with diligence to 
cultivate the great field committed to his care, espe- 
cially to pluck up the weeds of heretical errors, 
and to root out the thorns of vices wherever they 
appeared. He never intermitted to preach to his 
people with great zeal. One hundred and one ser- 
mons, preached by him on the principal festivals 
of the year, are still extant. There are also among 
his works nine sermons on the fasts of the Ember 
days in December, and one hundred and forty-one 
epistles on important subjects of faith and discipline, 
which sufficiently show his pastoral vigilance and 
labours in every part of the Christian woVld, for 
the advancement of piety. His writings against 
the Manichees, Arians, Apollinarists, Nestorians, 
Eutychians, Novatians, and Donatists, are stand- 
ing proofs of his extraordinary genius and inde- 
fatigable zeal, and are an armory against all here- 
sies. Herein he clearly explains the whole mystery 
of the incarnation, and expressly . says, that the 
true body of ^Christ is really received by the faith-. 
ful in the holy Eucharist — Epis. 46, 47, and Sent*. 

S 



*?0q history of the 

6. de jejun. sept. mens. He is very explicit on the 
supremacy of St. Peter and his successors, the obla.- 
tion of the sacrifice, the benediction of chrism, the 
invocation and intercession of saints.— Ep. 89, 125, 
and Serm. 2. 4. 15. 34. 4i, &c. 

The example of St. Leo shows, that even in the 
worst of times, a holy pastor is the greatest com- 
fort and support of his flock. He was reverenced 
and beloved by all ranks of people, even infidels 
and barbarians, on account of his humility, mild- 
ness, charity, and other shining virtues. When 
Attila, Kintc of the Huns, styled the terror of the 
world, and the scourge of Godj was enriching him- 
self with the plunder of many nations and cities, 
and advancing in his career towards Rome, all Italy 
was in a general consternation, and St. Leo was 
requested to go meet him, in hopes of mollifying 
his rage. His army, which, according to Jor- 
nandes, amounted to the prodigious number of 
seven hundred thousand fighting men, was van- 
quished in the year 452, by the Roman General 
Actius, in a most bloody battle fought in the exten- 
sive plains of Champagne, near Challons. Attila, 
enraged at this defeat, repaired his losses and en- 
tered Italy by Pannonia, in the year 45 3, He took 
and burnt the city of Aquileia, filled the whole 
country with blood and desolation, and destroyed 
;ill before him by fire and sword. He sacked Milan, 
rozed Pavia, and depopulated whole provinces. 
Multitudes of the inhabitants fled from his arms, 
for protection, into the little islands in the shallow 
lakes at the head of the Adriatic Gulph, and there 
laid the foundations of the noble city and republic 
of Venice. The weak Emperor, Valentinian 111. 
shut himself up in Ravenna, and the Romans, in 
the utmost terror, expected to see the barbarians 
speedily before their gates. Such was the state of 
affairs when St. Leo went to meet Attila near Ra- 
venna. Contrary to the expectation of every one, 
he received the Pope with great honour, and gave 
him a favourable audience. St. Leo on his part 
addressed the barbarian with so much energy, ek>- 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 207' 

quence, and dignity, that he prevailed on him to 
forbear all hostility, to repass the Alps, and retire 
beyond the Danube, into Pannonia, where Attila 
died of a violent vomiting* of blood, in the year 
453. St. Leo likewise went to meet Genseric, King 
of the Vandals, in Africa, when he landed in Italy 
with a powerful army, being invited into it by the 
empress Eudoxia, who had taken a disgust to her 
husband Maximus, for having forced her to marry 
him after the murder of her former husband, Va* 
leminian III. The holy Pope prevailed on this 
Vandal King to restrain his troops from slaughter- 
ing the citizens of Rome, and to content himself 
with the plunder of the city. Accordingly, hav- 
ing entered it without opposition, in the year 455> 
he delivered it up to the soldiers, who, after pillag- 
ing it for the space of fourteen days, retired at 
length with an immense booty. St. Leo having 
filled the holy see twenty-one years, one month, 
and thirteen days, died on the 10th of November, 
461. St. Hilarius, his successor, died in the year 
467. Upon his demise St. Simplicius, the ornament 
of the Roman Clergy, was raised by Divine Pro- 
vidence to the chair of St. Peter, to comfort and 
support the Church amidst the greatest storms. All 
the provinces of the Western Empire, out of Italy, 
were fallen into the hands of the barbarians. The 
ten last emperors, during twenty years, were rather 
shadows of power than sovereigns. The governors 
levied heavy taxes in the most arbitrary ways, and 
oppressed the people at discretion. Italy itself, by 
the ravages of foreigners, was almost depopulated, 
and the Imperial armies consisted chiefly of the 
Suevi, Alans, Heruli, fee. Such was the condi- 
tion of the Roman state in its decline. It was torn 
by intestine convulsions and civil dissentions, and 
had within itself the seed of its own destruction, 
which sooner or later must occasion the dissolution 
of a body politic, no less certainly than the inter- 
nal weakness of the animal body must bring it at 
length to a fatal period. The Heruli, a people o| 
that part of Germany now called Mecklenburg* 



§dS HISTORY OF TIfcE'' 

demanded one-third of the lands of Italy fo? therri; 
selves, and upon refusal, they chose for their leader 
Qdoacer, one of the lowest extraction, but a tall, 
resolute, and intrepid man, then an officer in the 
guards. He entered the city of Rome in the year 
.476, and was proclaimed King of Italy, and, out 
of contempt to Rome, fixed his royal seat at Ra- 
venna. He deposed the young Emperor Augustu- 
lus, when he had only reigned eight months ; ex- 
tinguished the imperial title in the West ; and put 
to death Orestes, who was regent of the empire, 
for his son Augustulus. Odoacer, however, spared 
the life of the young beautiful prince, appointed 
Fiim a salary of six thousand pounds of gold, and 
permitted him to live at full liberty near Naples*. 
The holy Pope Simplicius was in the interim whol- 
ly taken up in comforting and relieving the afflicted, 
*nd in sowing the seeds of the Catholic faith among, 
the Barbarians. . The Eastern Empire gave his zeal 
no less employment and concern, particularly when 
he discovered the artifices of Acacius, Cnapheus, 
and Peter Mongus, and saw the faith ambiguously 
(] betrayed by the famous decree of 
union, called the Haioticcn, which the emperor Ze- 
ro, son and successor to Leo the Thracian, had pub- 
ilshed in favour of the Eutychians. St. Simplicius 
governed the Church fifteen years, eleven months, 
and six days, and w*nt to receive the reward of his 
labours in the year 483. St. Felix 111. died the 
ninth year of his Pontificate, on the 25tb of Februa- 
ry, in the year 492. St. Gelasius filled the Aposto- 
lic see four years, eight months, ajid eighteen days. 
He was illustrious, not only for his profound eru,#- 
lion, but also for his extraordinary humility, tempe- 
rance, austerity, liberality to the poor, and purity of 
manners. In his writings he expressly mentions 
the blessing of holy oils, the anointing, and other 
ceremonies used at Baptism, the blessing of holy 
water, the invocation of the saints, veneration of re- 
lics, votive masses, holy communion, &c. He died 
on the 21st of November, in the year 495. St. 
Anastasius II. filled the Papal chair about two years. 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 209 

St. Symmachus, a native of Sardinia, and Arch-dea- 
con of the Roman Church, was raised to the holy- 
see in the year 498. lie died on- the 19th of July? 
in the year 514. 

It was in the fifth century that the Southern Picts, 
so called from the custom of painting their bodies 
in Caesar's time, were converted to Christ, by St. 
Ninianus, as venerable Bede tells us, 1. 3. Hist, c, 
4. The French were likewise converted to Chris- 
tianity about the close of this century ; Clovis their 
king, with three thousand officers of his army, hav- 
ing been baptized in the year 496, by St Remigius, 
archbishop of Rheims, on Christmas day. This 
great Apostle of the French nation, was one of the 
brightest lights of the Gaulish Church, illustrious 
for his learning, eloquence, sanctity, and miracles. 
He was raised to the Episcopacy when he was twea- 
ty-two years old, held that dignity about seventy-two* 
years, and died in the 94th year of his age. Hinc- 
mar informs us, that St. Remigius gave to the 
Church of Rheims a silver chalice, ornamented with 
several images, and on it he caused three verses to 
be engraved, which express the Catholic doctrine 
concerning the blessed Eucharist: 

u Hauriat hinc fio/iulus vitam de sanguine sacro f 
r< Injecto at emus quern fudit vulnere Christus, 
* ; Remigius reddit Domino sua vota sacerdos" 

JViis holy vase was by Remigius giy'n, 
To cheer the soul, and clear the way to Hearfn, 
From whence each true believer may be fed 
With the sacred blood his Saviour shed. 

The Providence of God raised a great number of 
&iher holy bishops and learned doctors in this age, 
to maintain the purity of faith, and to combat a nu- 
merous brood of heresies that started up, and as- 
saulted the Church with great violence. The great 
St. Augustine, after shining like a bright luminary 
for a considerable time in the fourth century, con- 
tinued his labours for the Church about thirty years- 
in the fifth, and was the chief instrument of God in? 
overthrowing the errors of the Donatists, Mani* 
S 2 



~iO HISTORY OF THE 

cheans, and Pelagians. The Donatists had already 
caused great tumults and contests, and spread de- 
vastation over Africa for more than a hundred years. 
They now reckoned above five hundred Bishops of 
their faction, and were divided into so many different 
sects, in Mauritania and Numidia, that they them- 
selves did not know their number. At length, in 
the year 41 1, a famous conference, that was opened 
at Carthage on the 4th of June, and continued three 
days, gave a mortal blow to their schism, for the 
Donatist bishops being publicly refuted and worsted, 
the greatest part of thqm renounced their errors, 
and from that time their followers returned in 
crowds to the bosom of the Catholic Church. The 
great Augustine had a principal share in the dispu- 
tation, and bore away the glory of that triumphant 
day. When their schism was nearly extinguished, 
the Church saw horself attacked by new enemies: 
Pelagius, an Englishman, and Celestius, a Scotchman, 
Julian and their followers, the Semi-pelagians in 
Gaul, at Lerins and Marseilles, broached most dan- 
gerous errors, chiefly regarding original sin, and the 
necessity of Divine grace. It is not to be wonder- 
ed that the heresy of Pclagias found so many advo- 
cates, for as pride is become the darling passion of 
man's heart, through the corruption of human na- 
ure by sin, men are born with a propensity to Pela- 
gianism, or principles which flatter an opinion of 
our own strength, merit, and self-sufficiency. Next 
to Arianism, the Church never received a more 
dangerous assault. But this formidable heresy was 
nobly combated and refuted by St. Augustine and 
Jerom, and anathematized by the authority of the 
Apostolic see. The glorious Augustine, by several 
learned volumes, clearly proved, that, without the 
succour of Divine Grace, man can do nothing, can' 
not so much as form one good thought, conducive 
:o eternal life, nor take the least step, towards God, 
by supernatural virtue, " for as the eye of the body, 
" though perfectly sound, cannot see unless it be 
" assisted by the light, so in like manner," says this 
' oly doctor, " neither can a man live well, but by 
fi eLcrnal light, which is derived from God." 



CHURClf OF CHRIST. 211 

St. Prosper of Aquitain, zealously opposed the 
progress of Semi-pelagianism. About the year 431 
he wrote his most elegant poem On the ungrateful^ 
and published two books in answer to the objections 
of Vincent of Lerins, and of Cassian, the famous 
abbot of St. Victor's at Marseilles, whom he styles 
the Collator, as having been the author of the book 
of Conferences, and of the twelve books of The 
Institutions of a monastic Life, wherein the spiritual 
maxims of the most experienced monks of Egypt 
are collected. St. Prosper wrote a chronicle from 
the creation of the world to the year 455', and a 
book of four hundred sentences drawn from the 
works of St. Augustine, which is an excellent ab- 
stract of his doctrine on grace. Among other 
things, he says, " that the see of St. Peter fixed at 
u Rome presides ever the whole world, possessing 
" by religion what it never had subdued by arms. J> 

St. Peter Chrysologus, Archbishop of Ravenna, 
flourished also in the fifth century. His reputation 
as a preacher ran so high as to procure him the 
surname of Chrysologus, which is as much as to say, 
that his speeches were of gold, or excellent. We 
have an hundred and seventy six of his discourses 
still extant. He strongly recommends the commu- 
nion of the body of Christ, Serm. 65. 67, 68, &c. 
every where extols the excellency, and inculcates 
the obligation of alms-deeds, prayer, and fasting. 

St. Severianus, bishop of Scythopolis ; St. Por- 
phyrius, bishop of Gaza, St. Maximus, bishop of 
Riez ; St. Medard, bishop of Noyon ; St. Caesarius 
and St. Hilary, arch-bishops of Aries ; St. Honora- 
tus, arch-bishop of Marseilles; St. Severinus, 
apostle of Austria; and St. Eucherius, bishop of 
Lyons, were likewise great luminaries in the fiftk 
century. St. Isidore, bishop of Peiusium, was 
looked upon as a living rule of religious perfection. 
We have still extant two thousand and twelve of 
his letters, abounding with excellent instructions of 
piety, and with theological and criticiil learn- 
ing, We have also a correct edition of the homi- 
lies and sermons of St. Maximum, the illustrious 



212 HISTORY OF THE 

bishop of Turin, with Muratori's remarks, from a 
manuscript of the Ambrosian Library, above one 
thousand years old. St. Gaudentius, bishop of 
Brescia, is called, by Ruffinus, * the glory of the 
" doctors of the age wherein he lived." The 
Church of Brescia possessed a great treasure in 
this holy pastor. He constantly broke the bread of 
life to his flock, and fed their souls with the impor- 
tant truths of salvation. We have twenty of his ser- 
mons still extant, in the second, which he made for 
the Neophytes, after their coming; out of the font, he 
explains to them the mysteries which he could not 
expound in the presence of the Catechumens, es- 
pecially of the blessed Eucharist, of which he says, 
" The Great Creator, the Lord of Nature, who bring- 
" eth the bread out of the ground, maketh also bread 
* of his own body ; because he hath promised, and is 
" able to perform it, and he who made wine of water, 
M converteth wine into his own blood." Bibl Pat. t, 
5. p 949. Labbe says, that St. Gaudentius died in 
the year 427. 

St. Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, and St. Lupus, 
bishop of Troyes, lived also in this century, and 
became illustrious for the fame of their sanctity, 
doctrine, and miracles. Burning with zeal for the 
glory of Christ, they assisted at the synod and pub- 
lic conference at Verulam, about the year 446, ac- 
cording to Spelman, and confuted the errors of Agri- 
cola, a disciple of Pelagius and Celestius, who 
denied the corruption of human nature by original 
sin, and the necessity of divine grace. They con- 
firmed the Catholics of Britain in the true faith, 
converted great numbers, even of those who were 
spreading the poison of Pelagianism through that 
island, and entirely banished the heresy by their 
prayers, preaching, and renowned miracles, which 
are related by Bede, Constantius, and Nennius, the 
British historians. It was during the second mission 
of St Germanus into Britain, as Carte asserts, that 
the Britons gained the famous AUeluiah victory over 
the army of the Picts and baxon pirates, without 
bloodshed, by a stratagem the holy bishop had MM 



Cli¥H«H OF CHRJS't. 2*^3 

course to. See Becle Hist. 1. I.e. 1. Usher A. B.t. 
11, &c. 

St. Mammertus, archbishop of Vienne, in Dail- 
phine, in the year 447, was a prelate renowned in 
the Church for his sanctity, learning, and miracles. 
He instituted in his diocese the yearly fasts and sup- >. 
plications called the Bogatio7is, to appease the wrath 
of Heaven, and avert the scourges and public cala- 
mities with which the country was then afflicted. 

St. Vincent of Lerins, who fived about this period, 
informs us in his prologue, that having been for 
some lime tossed about in the storms of a bustling 
military life, and seriously considering the dangers 
with which he was surrounded, he made for the de- 
sired peaceful and safe haven of religion with all 
the sail he could, that he might divest his soul of its 
ruffling; passions of pride and vanity, and that be- 
ing further removed from worldly temptations, he 
might endeavour more easily to avoid, not only the 
wrecks of the present life, but also the burnings of 
that which is to come. For this end he shut himself 
up in the famous monastery of Lerins, not far from 
the coast gf Lower Provence, towards Antibes. In 
this place, he assures us, he earnestly strove to redeem 
time, and to turn it always to the best account, re- 
flecting that those fleeting moments pass as quick as 
they come, never, never more to return, as wate? 
which is gone from its source, runs to it no more. 
There were two other Vincents living at Marseilles, 
at that very time, and there might be others of the 
same name, one of whom might have been a semi- 
pelagian. But the saint we here speak of, condemned 
the profane novelties of semi-pelagianism with great 
warmth, and highly extolled the letter of Pope Ce* 
lestine to the bishops of Gaul. Out of humility, he 
disguised himself under the name of Peregrinus, a 
pligrim or stranger on earth, the least of all the ser- 
vants of God, and less than the least of all the Saints*, 
unworthy to bear the holy name of a Christian. He 
considered that true faith is necessary to salvation no 
less than morality, and that the former is the founda- 
tion of Christian virtue ; and he grieved to see the 



214 HISTORY OF THE 

Church, at that time pestered with numberless here- 
sies, which sucked their poison from their very an- 
tidote, the holy Scriptures, as the spider sucks poi* 
son from the very same flower that the bee extracts 
honey. To guard the faithful against the dangerous 
snares that were spread on every side, and to open 
the eyes of those, who had been already seduced by 
the false and perplexing glosses of subtle refiners, 
St. Vincent with great clearness and force of rea- 
soning wrote a book in the year 434, which he enti- 
tled A Commanitory against Heretics, particularly 
tho Xesiovians and Apoilinarists, whom he nobly 
confute? herein, by general clear principles. Toge- 
ther with the ornaments of eloquence and erudition, 
the inward beauty of his mind, and the brightness 
of his devotion sparkle in every page of this book. 
He lays down this rule, or fundamental principle, in 
"which he found, by a diligent inquiry, all Catholic 
pastors and the ancient Fathers to agree, that suc_h 
doctrine is truly Catholic, as hath been believed in 
all places, at alt times, and by all the faithful, Com. 
c. 3. By this test of universality, antiquity, and 
consent, he says all controverted points in belief 
must be tried. He shows, that whilst Novatian, 
Donatus, Arius, Pelagius, kc. expound the divine 
oracles different ways, to avoid the perplexity of 
errors, we must interpret the holy Scriptures by the 
tradition of the Catholic Church, as the clue to con- 
duct us in the truth ; for this tradition, derived from 
the Apostles, manifests the true meaning of the holy 
Scriptures, and all novelty in faith is a certain mark 
of heresy. He says, that new teachers, who have 
made bold with one article of faith, will proceed on 
to others ; and what will be the consequence of this 
reforming of religion, but only that these refiners 
will never have done, till they have reformed it quite 
away. C. 29. He elegantly expatiates en the divine 
charge given to the Church, to maintain inviolable 
the sacred depositum of faith, C. I. 2f. p. 30. Ht 
takes notice, that in the works of Paulus Samosata, 
Piiscillian, Eunomias, Jovinian, and other heretics, 
almost every page is paiotcd,and laid on thick wit!" 



£Hfe~RCH OF CHRISXV 215 

Scripture texts. But in this, he says, heretics are 
like those prisoners or quacks, who put off their 
destructive potions under inscriptions of good drugs* 
and under the title of infallible cures. C. 31. They 
imitate the Father of Lies, who quoted Scripture 
against the Son of God when he tempted him. C 32. 
The Saint adds, that if a doubt arise in interpreting 
the meaning of the Scriptures in any point of faith, 
we must summon in the holy Fathers, who have 
lived and died in the faith and communion of the 
Catholic Church, and by this test we shall prove the 
false doctrine to be novel ; for that only we must 
look upon as indubitably certain and unalterable, 
which all, or the major part of these Fathers have 
delivered, like the harmonious consent of a general 
council. But if any one among them, be he ever so 
holy, ever so learned, holds any thing besides, or 
in opposition to the rest, that is to be placed in the 
rank of singular and private opinions, and never to 
be looked upon as the public, general, authoritative 
doctrine of the Church. C. 33. These general 
principles, by which all heresies are easily over- 
thrown and confounded, St. Vincent explains with 
equal elegance and perspicuity. No controversial 
book ever expressed so much, and such deep sense 
in so few words. 

St. Proclus, archbishop of Constantinople, flou- 
rished at the time of the memorable earthquakes, 
that were felt during six months in diverse parts of 
Egypt and the East, especially near the Hellespont. 
The earth shook like a ship, abandoned to the mercy 
of the winds, and tossed by the fury of the waves 
worked up by a storm. Amidst the ruins of many 
stately buildings, men ran to and fro distracted with 
fear and horror, not being able to find any place of 
refuge, or security. At Constantinople the inhabi- 
tants wandered in the fields, and with the rest the em- 
peror Theodosius the younger, and all his courtiers, 
St. Proclus with his clergy followed his scattered 
flock, and ceased not to comfort and exhort them 
amidst their afflictions. He implored the divine 
mercy with them by unanimous and common prayer, 



216 H*&TORY OF THJE 

Singing devoutly the celebrated Trisagion : H*4y 
God, Holy Strong-, Holy Immortal, have mercy ufion 
us, whereupon the earthquake ceased. St. Augus- 
tine tells us, that at another time, under the emperor 
Arcadius, a great ball of fire appeared in the air over 
Constantinople, and that the emperor and all the citi- 
zens, fearing that the city was going to be destroyed, 
abandoned it one day, until God was moved through 
their tears and prayers to spare them in his great 
mercy. T. 6. p. 622. 

The great Theodoret lived in this age. He was 
educated in every branch of Syrian, Greek, and He- 
brew learning. He gave a large estate to the poor, 
and was consecrated bishop of Cyprus, in the year 
.423. He converted all the Marcianites, Arians, and 
other heretics in his extensive diocese, wherein he 
reckoned 800 parishes. His works are printed in 
four volumes, in folio. His Church History in five 
books is a valuable compilation. He assures us, that 
he was himself an eye-witness to several of the mira- 
cles which he relates to have been wrought by the 
sign of the cross, by holy water, and blessed oil. In 
his eighth discourse on the Martyrs, he elegantly 
explains in what manner the souls of the martyrs, 
now in Heaven, with the choirs of Angels, are our 
protectors and mediators with God, and he .clearly 
demonstrates that the veneration which Christians 
pay to the saints, is entirely different from the wor- 
ship which the Heathens gave to their false gocls. 

The illustrious St. Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria, 
was raised by God in this ago to be the champion of 
the Church, and defender of the faith of the Incani.i- 
tion, against Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, who 
impiously divided Christ into two persons, the one 
God, the other man, therefore denied the blessed Vir- 
gin to be the mother of God. This new doctrine 
shocked the faithful exceedingly,excited every wh ere 
^clamours, and caused great scandal both among the 
clergy and laity. St. Cyril, on reading the homilies 
of Nestorius, sent him a mild expostulation on the 
subject, and attempted to reclaim him by rcmon- 
sltomc.cs, but he was answered with haughtiness and 



CHURCH OF CHRiaX. 2i7 

contempt. The retiredncss and austerity of Nesto- 
rius's life, joined with a hypocritical exterior of vir- 
tue, and a superficial learning, and fluency of words, 
gained him some reputation in the world. But being 
full of self-conceit, he neglected the study of the 
ancient Fathers, was a man of weak judgment, ex- 
tremely vain, violent, and obstinate, as the historians 
of those times testify* St. Cyril, who studied under 
his uncle Theophilus, made it his rule, never to ad- 
vance any doctrine which he had not learned from 
the ancient Fathers, and never ceased to exert his 
zeal in maintaining the faith of the Church in its 
primitive purity, and in opposing every heretical 
novelty at its first appearance With the approba- 
tion of the emperor Theodosius, he drove the No- 
vatians and Jews out of Alexandria, but thereby 
offended Orestes the governor so grievously, that he 
rejected all offers of reconciliation with the holy 
bishop, though he conjured him by the Gospels to 
join in sincere friendship. This unhappy disagree- 
ment produced many pernicious effects, created 
several enemies for St. Cyiil,and lessened his inter- 
est at the imperial court. The unruly and tumultuous 
mob of the populous city of Alexandria, the second 
in the world for extent, seditiously rose up against 
the famous Hypatia, upon a suspicion that she had 
incensed the governor against their bishop. This 
Pagan lady kept a public school of Platonic philo- 
sophy in the city. Her reputation for learning was 
so great, that Synesius and other philosophers of 
the first rank flocked to her from all parts, and con- 
sulted her on the most intricate questions. She was 
much respected and consulted by the governor, 
which made the populace pull her out of her chariot, 
mangle her flesh, and tear her body in pieces in th« 
streets of Alexandria, in the year 415, to the scandal 
of ail good men, and to the great grief of St. Cyril, 
who was by no means conscious of a crime so horri- 
ble and sojiJiocking to human nature. 

This holy doctor triumphed at length over all his 
enemies by his meekness, intrepidity, and courage. 
He sent Nestorius twelve propositions) called And- 
T 



21S HISTORY OF THE 

thematis7ns> to be signed by him, as a proof of his 
orthodoxy-, but the heresiarch appearing more per- 
verse and obstinate than ever, the third general 
council was opened at Ephesus, in the year 431, by 
two hundred and seventy -four bishops, with St. Cyril 
at their head, as Pope Celestine's legate and repre- 
sentative. A throne was raised in the middle of the 
Church, and on it was erected the book of the Gos- 
pel to represent the assistance of Jesus Christ, who 
has promised that he will be in the midst of the pas- 
tors assembled in his name. The bishops being 
seated on both sides, according to the dignity of their 
sees, the heretical sermons of Nestorius, who re- 
fused to appear, though then in the city and thrice 
cited) were read, and depositions received against 
him, His doctrine was examined and condemned, 
and the sentence of excommunication and deposition 
was pronounced against him, after which he was 
banished by the Emperor Theodosius, at the request 
of John of Anlioch, his former friend, to Oasis, in 
the deserts of Upper Egypt, where he died misera- 
bly and impenitent. The oriental bishops made 
peace with St. Cyril in the year 433, when matters 
jcing cleared up to his honour, and his conduct be- 
ing approved, the schism was extinguished, and the 
zealous patriarch spent the remainder of his days in 
the faithful discharge of his pastoral duties till his 
glorious death, in the year 444, on the 26th of June. 
The Latin translation of this lather's works is 
printed in six tomes, in folio. His extraordinary dc- 
\otion towards the blessed sacrament of the Eucha- 

.ppears from the zeal with which he frequently 
inculcates the wonderful effects which it produces in 

>iil of him who worthily receives it, especially 
in healing all his spiritual disorders, strengthening 
L)in? against temptations, subduing the passions, in 
giving life, and making us one with Christ by the 
most sacred union, not oniy in spirit and affection, 
but also by a natural participation with his huma- 
nity* 11. 4. Coin. Nest. t. 6. 1. 7. De Adorat. tit. I. 1. 
i(J. Joan. t. 4. Hence he says, that u by the holy 
• communion we arc mad< COrt corporeal with Christ, 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. ^ib 

" for as wax melted and mingled with another piece 
¥ of melted wax, makes one, so by partaking of his 
" precious body and blood, he is united in us, and 
" we in him." In his works against Nestorius, he is 
also very clear in establishing the reality of Christ's 
body, in the sacrament of the altar and the holy 
sacrifice. " We celebrate, says he, the unbloody 
" sacrifice in the Church, and do by this means ap~ 
" proach the mystical benediction, and are sancti- 
" iied, being made partakers of the sacred flesh 
" and precious blood of Christ, the Saviour of us 
li all, and we do not receive it as common flesh, but 
* ; as it is truly, the life giving and proper flesh of 
» the word." He likewise says in his 9th homily 
on the Mystical Sufi/ier, or holy banquet of the com- 
munion and sacrifice: " The tremendous mystery 
" is performed, and the Lamb of God sacrificed. 
" The Eternal Wisdom distributes his body as 
" bread, and his saving blood as wine : The Maker 
" gives himself to the work of his own hands. Life 
" bestows itself to be eat and drunk by men. He 
<( remains the Priest and the victim : he who offers, 
" and he who is offered. " 

The Nestorian heresy being condemned in the 
manner above mentioned, another formidable heresy 
was broached by Eutyches, abbot of a monastery 
of three hundred monks, near Constantinople, who 
had acquired a reputation of virtue, but in efTect 
was no better than an ignorant, proud, and obstinate 
man. His intemperate zeal against Nestorius, for 
asserting two distinct persons in Christ our Lord, 
threw him into the opposite error, of denying two dis- 
tinct natures after the incarnation. This heresiarch 
being condemned in a council of thirty-two bishops, 
and twenty-three abbots, held in the year 448, by 
St. Flavian, successor of St. Proclus, in the Archie- 
piscopal see of Constantinople, appealed to St. Leo the 
Great, complaining of the proceedings of the coun- 
cil, and endeavouring to impose on him by false as- 
sertions. But the Pope being informed of the true 
state of the affair, wrote to him an ample declaration 
of the orthodox faith, concerning the mystery of 



$20 BISTORT OP THE 

the Incarnation. Yet by the intrigues of Chrysaa- 
, -as the eunuch, a kinsman of Eutyches, and a 
particular favourite and chamberlain to the weak 
fclmperor Theodosius IT. a packed council was as- 
sembled at Ephesus, without the authority of the 
Pope, and an order was obtained, for a rc-examina- 
#of) of the cause between St. Flavian and Eutyches. 
This pretended synod, commonly called the Latro- 
:/c, or cabal of Ephesus, for the violences there- 
in used, met on the eighth of August, in the year 449, 
and Dioscorus, who had succeeded S. Cyril in the 
patriarchal see of Alexandria, and who was a man of 
a violent temper, an Eutychian, and general distur- 
ber of Christian peace, took upon him to preside in 
it. The false council consisted of one hundredjand 
thirteen bishops, or their deputies, from Egypt and 
the East. Eutyches was present with two officers 
from the Emperor, and a great number of soldiers. 
Every thing tried on by violence and open 

.our of Eutyches, by those officers and 
moused his party, and formed a 
It of the proceedings was to 
pronounce sentence of deposition against St. Fla- 
ms of Dory latum, who had accused 
lical errors. The Legates sent by 
Pope Leo to act in his name, were not suffered by 
Dio! his letters. They protested 

iitist the unjust sentence, and opposed it with a 
.1 and vigour that was admired by the whole 
world, says Theodoret, Ep. 116. Hilarius, the dea- 
con, who afterwards succeeded St. Leo, cried aloud 
i'f ruradicitur. opposition is made. Dioscorus no soon- 
er began to read the sentence, but lie was interrupt- 
ed by several of the bishops, prostrating themselves 
fore him, and beseeching him in the most submis- 
sive terms, to proceed no further in so unwarranta- 
ble an affair. Upon this he started up, and called 
aloud for the imperial commissioners, who ordered 
the church doors to be set open, and a band of sol- 
diers to be let in, followed by a confused multitl 
with chains, clubs, and swords. This struck such a 
terror into the whole assembly, that few had the 
courage to withstand the thrcaN except the legal 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 221 

who got off with much difficulty, and to whom St, 
Flavian delivered in writing his act of appeal to the 
Apostolic see, which so provoked Dioscorus, Bar- 
sumas, and others of their party, that they threw the 
holy bishop on the ground, and kicked and bruised 
him with such a degree of malice and violence, that 
he died within a few days, a martyr of the mystery 
of the Incarnation of the Son of God. When the 
council was over, Dioscorus, with two of the Egyp- 
tian bishops, had the insolence to excommunicate 
St. Leo. But violence and injustice did not triumph, 
long. Upon the first advice of these proceedings, 
St. Leo declared them null and void. He wrote to 
the Emperor, and conjured him in these words : 
" Leave to the bishops the liberty of defending the 
" faith : no power or terrors of the world will ever 
u be able to destroy it — protect the Church, and 
" seek to preserve its peace, that Christ may pro- 
<( tect your empire." The next year the Emperor 
died, as Cedrenus says, penitent and sensible of his 
error, Chrysaphius was disgraced, and Eudoxia 
obliged to retire to Jerusalem. Marcian and St. 
Pulcheria ascending the Imperial throne, the fourth 
general council was opened on the 8th of October, 
in the year 451, at Chalcedon, in the suburbs of 
Constantinople. It consisted of six hundred and 
ninety bishops. St. Leo presided by his legates. 
The memory of St. Flavian was vindicated. The 
wicked Dioscorus was declared excommunicated 
and deposed. Eusebius of Dorylseum was honoura- 
bly restored to his see, and the Eutychian heresy 
was solemnly condemned and anathematized by the 
whole Church. The fathers of the Council; in their 
synodal letter to St. Leo, beseech him to confirm 
their decrees, saying, "He had presided over them, 
" as the-head over its members." — Cone. t. 4. p. 833. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

The Church of the sixth Century. 
THE Apostolic see was filled in this century by 
Hormisdas, John I. Felix IV, Boniface II. John II. 
T 2 



222 HISTORY OF THE 

Agapetus I. Silverius, Viligius, Pelagius I. John 
III. Benedict I. Pelagius II. and St. Gregory the 
Great. 

After the death of St. Symmachus, Hormisdas 
governed the Church nine years. He had been en- 
gaged in wedlock before he entered the ministry. 
He died in odour of sanctity, in the year 523, and 
was succeeded by John I. a Tuscan by birth, who 
sat two years and nine months. He was obliged, by 
Theodoric, the Arian King of the Goths, who resid- 
ed chiefly at Spoleto, or Ravenna, to go at the head 
of an embassy of live bishops and four senators to 
Constantinople, on a negociation with the emperor 
Justin. The joy of that city was universal, and the 
pomp with which the successor of St. Peter was re- 
ceived there, seemed to surpass the festival of a 
liiumph. The inhabitants went out twelve miles to 
meet him, carrying wax tapers and crosses. Auas- 
tasius relates, that on entering tha city he restored 
sight to a blind man. Whilst he was in the East, 
toric caused the great statesman and philoso- 
pher Boetius, one of the finest geniuses the world 
ever produced, to be apprehended and tortured on a 
wheel, by. which his head was squeezed wkh such 
violence, that his eyes flew out; then he was beaten 
With clubs by two executioners, and beheaded, or 
r his head was clove asunder in the year 525. 
When the holy Pope St. John Itfiukcl at Ravenna, 
with the four senators, his colleagues, he was, by or- 
f Theodoric, cast into a dark and loathsome 
dungeon, where he died on the 27th of May, 526 

St. Felix IV. succeeded him in the Pontificate, 
and died on the 18th of September, 530. Boniface 
II. governed the Church about two years, and died 
in the year 532. John 11. died on the 26th of April, 
SalS. The great sat.ciity of St. Agapetus recom- 
mended him to the love and veneration of all that 
knew him. He was chosen to fill the holy see, and 
consc crated on the 4th of May, 535. By his singu- 
lar mildness he soon healed the wounds which had 
Ik< :. Htade by distentions, and by the unhappy 

r k>jifacc II. in the year 



CHURCH OF CHRIST, 223 

529. Theodatus, King of the Goths in Italy, hear- 
ing that the emperor Justinian was making prepa- 
rations for an expedition to recover Italy, obliged 
Pope Agapetus to undertake a voyage to Constanti- 
nople, in order to divert him from such a design. 
Upon his arrival in that city he fell sick "and died,, 
on the 17th of April, 536, having sat about eleven 
months and three weeks. St. Gregory the great 
relates, Dial. 1. 5. c. 3. " that this holy Pope, on his 
" journey through Greece, cured a man who was 
" lame and dumb, by saying mass for him." 

Upon the demise of St. Agapetus, after a vacancy 
of forty-seven days, St. Silverius, the son of Hor- 
misdas, was chosen. He was violently persecuted 
by the empress Theodora, because he would not 
come into her unjust measures, and betray the cause 
of the Catholic faith. The Emperor Justinian, the 
husband of this violent and crafty woman, was now 
master of Rome. His general, Belisarius, having 
sailed with a fleet of 500 sail into Africa, had made 
an easy conquest of the whole country, and taken 
Carthage almost without opposition. By? his victo- 
ries he extinguished the puissant kingdom of the 
Vandals, and re-united Africa to the empire, after 
it had been separated above one hundred years. la 
the year 535 he marched with his victorious army 
against Italy, and after subduing Sicily, he passed 
thence into Italy, and took Naples and Rome ; the 
senate and people, at the persuasion of Silverius, 
having opened the gates of the city to him, whilst 
the Gothic garrison retired towards Ravenna, where 
Theodatus being deposed, Vitiges, an experienced 
officer, was raised to the throne, and having march- 
ed from Ravenna, in the year 537, with an army of 
one hundred and fifty thousand men, invested the 
city of Rome. The siege lasted a year and nine 
days, during which both Goths and Romans perform- 
ed prodigies of valour ; but Belisarius defeated all 
the attempts and stratagems of the Barbarians, and 
in the end obliged them to retire. In the interim, 
the empress Theodora endeavoured to promote the 
sect of the Acephali. or most rigid Eutychians^ who 



224 HISTORY O-F THE 

rejected the council of Chalcedon, but finding she 
could never expect from the firmness of Pope Sil- 
verius any thing favourable to her impious designs, 
she resolved to compass his deposition. For this 
end she made her application to the Arch-deacon 
Vigilius, a man of address, and promised to make 
him Pope, and to bestow him seven hundred pieces 
of gold, provided he would engage himself to com- 
municate with the three deposed Eutychian patri- 
archs, Anthimus of Constantinople, Severus of An- 
tioch, and Theodosius of Alexandria. The unhap- 
py Vigilius having assented to the conditions, the 
Empress sent him to Rome, and charged him with a 
letter to Belisarius, commanding him to depose Sil- 
verius, and to contrive the election of Vigilius to 
the Pontificate. To succeed the more easily in so 
unwarrantable a proceeding, the enemies of Silve- 
rius impeached him for high treason, and suborned 
two false witnesses to forge a letter, which was pre- 
tended to have been written by Silveriusto the king 
of the Goths, inviting him to Rome. Belisarius 
saw evidently this to be a bare-faced calumny, yet 
lie had the weakness to say, M The empress com- 
M mands, I must therefore obey. He who seeks the 
f* ruin of Silverius shall answer for it at the last day 
" — not I." Vigilius urged him on one side, to ex- 
ecute the project, and his wife Antonia on the 
other. Silverius was therefore stripped of all his 
pontifical ornaments, clothed with the habit of a 
monk, and sent into banishment to Patara in Lycia. 
The bishop of that city received the illustrious v-x- 
iie with ail possible marks of honour and respect, 
and, thinking himself bound to undertake his defe. cc, 
he repaiitcl to Constantinople ^ wlicre having ol 
ed a private audience of the E.npcror, he terrified 
him with the threats of the Divine judgment 
the expulsion of the bishop of so great a see, telltrig 
him, as Liberatus informs us, Brev. c. 22, " 1 h« re 
u are many kings in the world, but there is only one 
" Pope over the whole world," which words- i^piy 
a clear confession of the supremacy of the RonttM 
see. Justinian, who had not been sufficiently ap- 



church of Christ: 



m 



prised of the matter, appeared startled at the pro- 
ceedings, and gave orders that Silverius should be 
sent back to Rome, and restored to his see, in case 
he was not convicted of the treasonable correspond- 
ence with the Goths. But Belisarius, Vigilius, and 
Antonia, prevented his restoration, by causing him 
to be intercepted on the road, and to be conveyed 
into the little inhospitable island of Palmeruelo, near 
Tarracina, where the holy Pope died of hard usage, 
or, as Frocopius tells us, was murdered in the year 
538. That the eyes of Belisarius were afterwards 
plucked out, and that he was reduced to beg his bread 
in the streets of Constantinople, saying, Give a far- 
thing to fioor BelizarkiSs is a story founded on no 
better authority than that of John Tzetzes, a ly- 
ing Greek poet in the twelfth century. The truth 
is, that Belisarius, being recalled into the East, and 
sent against the Persians aad Hunns, was at length 
accused of having been privy to a conspiracy 
against Justinian, and lost his estates and honours, 
as Theophanes and Cedrenus testify ; but the same 
authors add, that he recovered them again, and died 
in peace. 

Vigilius, from an ambitious intruder and mer- 
cenary schismatic, became afterwards a lawful Pope, 
by the ratification and consent of the Roman Church; 
and, having renounced the errors and commerce of 
the Acephali, he suffered much for his steadfast ad- 
herence to the orthodox faith. He died in the year 
555. Upon his demise, Pelagius I. was raised to 
the Pontificate, which he held near five years. John 
III. surnamed Caielinus, was elected in the year 560, 
and governed the Church near thirteen years. Bene- 
dict 1. surnamed Bonosus^ was chosen in the year 
574, and died in 578. His successor Pelagius II. 
sat in the chair of St. Peter upwards of eleven years, 
and died in the beginning of the great pestilence ia 
January 590. 

St. Gregory, surnamed the Great > one of the four 
principal doctors of the Latin Church, was raised 
to the Pontificate by the unanimous voice of the 
c;lergy ; senate, and Roman people, and consecrated; 



226 HISTORY OF THE 

on the 3d of September, in the year 590^ though 
he had opposed his election with all his power, and 
concealed himself in the woods and caverns, till he 
was discovered, as Paul the deacon tells us, .by a 
pillar of light appearing over the place where he 
lay disguised. At the age of 35 years he took the 
monastic habit, and built and endowed the famous 
monastery of St. Andrew, on the hill Scaurus, with 
six other monasteries in Sicily. It is incredible how 
much he wrote and laboured during the thirteen 
years, six months, and ten days, that he sat in the 
«hair of St. Peter; what great things he achieved 
for the glory of God, the good of the Church, the 
reformation of manners, the edification of the faith- 
ful, the relief of the poor, the comfort of the afflict- 
ed, the establishment of ecclesiastical discipline, and 
the advancement of piety and religion ; especially if 
we consider the austerity of his life, his assiduity in 
prayer and holy contemplation, and his continual 
bad state of health and frequent sicknesses. In the 
beginning of his Pontificate he instituted the great 
Litanies, in order to avert an epidemical disorder 
that attacked the people of Rome after a great in- 
undation of the Tybcr. He took occasion from this 
calamity to exhort them to repentance. Having made 
a pathetic sermon on that subject, he appointed a 
solemn procession in seven companies, with a priest 
at the head of each, who were to march from differ- 
ent chinches, and all to meet in that of St. Mary 
Major, singing Kyrie Eteison as they went along the 
streets, until such time as the distemper ceased. The 
Litanies that are celebrated on the Rogation-days, 
were instituted by St. Mammertus, as has been al- 
ready observed, and were afterwards extended to the 
universal Church, by Leo 111. in the eighth century. 
St. Gregory's zeal for the glory of God, and the an- 
gelical function of paying him the constant tribute 
of praise in the Church, moved him to reform the 
Church music. He also revised and reformed the 
Ritual and Sacramentary, or ancient written order 
of the Mass, and made some accidental alterations 
and improvements in certain collects or prayers, the 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 227 

essential parts being always the same. Pope Gela- 
sius had thus augmented and revised the liturgy in 
the year 490, and the conformity between the pre- 
sent church office and this liturgy, as .well as all the 
other ancient liturgic writings, mentioned in the 
apostolic constitutions, and in the works of St. Igna- 
tius, St. Justin, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Innocent, 
Celestine, Leo, &c. appears so evidently from the 
Sacramentary, Antiphonarium, and Responsorium 
of St. Gregory, that the four Magueburgians or 
Centuriators acknowledge that the Fathers of the 
second and third century taught the doctrine of the 
Mass. St. Gregory, Horn. 8. testifies that he said 
Mass thrice on Christmas day: and, 1. 4, dial. c. 55, 
he relates, that he ordered Mass to be daily offered 
for the soul of Justus, one of his Monks, during 
thirty days, and that after the Mass of the thirtieth 
day, he was released from the torments in which 
he had been. From this fact of St. Gregory, a 
trentai of masses for a soul departed are usually 
called the Gregorian Masses. The Benedictine edi- 
tion of this holy doctor's works, in four volumes, 
folio, is the most accurate. His four books of dia- 
logues, forty homilies on the Gospels, fourteen books 
of letters, and thirty-five books of moral comments 
upon Job, are very interesting compilations of the 
main principles of morality. His incomparable 
bookOw the Pastoral Care, contains excellent instruc- 
tions on the dangers, duties, and obligations of all 
pastors of souls who are exhorted and commanded 
by the councils frequently to read it, and in it, as 
in a looking-glass, to behold themselves. He preached 
his exposition of Kzechiel in twenty-two homilies, 
at the time that Rome was besieged, in the year 
592. He subscribed himself in all his letters Ser- 
vant of the Servants of God. He was always a 
zealous asserter of the celibacy of the clergy, and 
extended his pastoral solicitude over all churches, 
frequently observing, that the care of the churches 
of the whole world was intrusted to St. Peter, and 
to his successors in the see of Rome, 1. 3. ep. 39. 
He declared that he received the four general 



228 HISTORY OF TlIE 

councils as the four Gospels. The state of Christ- 
endom was at that time miserably distracted, arid 
stood in need of such a pastor as St. Gregory, whose 
extraordinary sanctity, abilities, and zeal, rendered 
liim equal to every great enterprise. The Eeastern 
churches were divided and shattered by the heretical 
factions of the Nestorians, and the'numerous spawn 
of the Eutychians, all which he repressed. The 
West was harassed by barbarians. A great part of 
Italy was become a pray to the Lombards, so called 
from their having long beards. They were ori- 
ginally a barbarous and idolatrous nation, from 
Scandinavia and Pomcrania, that broke into the 
North of Italy about the middle of the sixth cen- 
tury. They gradually extended their dominions 
under their King, Alboinus, and made themselves 
masters of the grand city of Milan in the year 568. 
In process of time they became so powerful that 
they besieged Rome itself; but St. Gregory engaged 
them, by entreaties, to retire into their own terri- 
tories, and by his zeal brought over their King, 
Agiluph, to the Catholic faith. The Lombard laws 
authorized duels, but only with a buckler and clubs : 
cumfustibus et cly/ieo. This execrable practice, of 
barbarous extraction, became more pernicious when 
more dangerous weapons were used, and it was 
usurped by private authority, though it is in itself 
the basest, as well as the most horrible and unna- 
tural crime, unknown to the Jews, Greeks, and 
Romans, and to all civilized nations, most renown- 
ed for true valour. Yet, alas ! since the challenge 
sent by Francis I. of France to the Emperor 
Charles V. whom he could no longer face with an 
army, as Spelman observes, duelling has been able, 
by maxims equally shocking to reason and religion, 
to pass for a test of coinage and a point of honour, 
by a false prostitution of those names. True for- 
titude incites and enables a man to bear all manner 
of affronts, and to undergo all humiliations, dan- 
gers, hardships, and torments, for the sake of vir- 
tue and duty. What is more contrary to this heroic 
disposition, what can 1)e imagined more dastardly 



GHtTRCH OF CHRIST. 229 

than not to be able to much as to look humiliation 
in the face, or to put up with a petty affront ? 
What more inconsistent with the character of a 
Christian than to trample upon the favourite com- 
mandment of Christ, and offend against all laws, 
divine and human, rather than brook an injury, or 
bear a trifling offence with patience and constancy ! 
To forgive injuries, and to suffer with humility for 
Christ, is the distinguishing mark of his followers, 
and the very soul of the Divine Law. Nay, it is 
a glorious victory gained over ourselves, by which 
we vanquish our passions, and improve in our souls 
the habits of those divine virtues in which consists 
the spirit of Christ and the resemblance we are com- 
manded to bear to him. 

But to return to St Gregory, he reformed many 
grievous abuses in Gaul, whence he banished 
Simony, which had greatly infected that Church. 
It is to his zeal that the flourishing kingdom of the 
Angles, who were originally a Saxon people that 
invaded the south part of Great Britain and gave 
it their name, owes its conversion. Christianity 
had, indeed, been introduced into England in the 
second century, in the reign of King Lucius, but 
it was driven about two hundred years after into 
the mountains of Wales, by the Saxon Pagans, 
until St. Austin and his colleagues, St. Laurence, 
St. Mellitus, Bcc. were sent from R'jme, by Pope 
Gregory the Great, to re-establish the faith and 
law of Jesus Christ in that island, by their preach- 
ing and miracles, about five hundred years before 
the Norman Conquest. It was then they converted 
the English nation from Saxon Paganism, and bap- 
tized the kings Ethelbert and Sebert, with a great 
number of their subjects. Historians relate, that 
St. Austin entered the kingdom of Kent with forty 
companions, preceded by the Cross, and baptized 
no less than ten thousand persons at Canterbury on 
Christmas-day. 

It was about the middle of this century, in the 
year 55 3, that the fifth General Council was celebra- 
ted at Constantinople. It consisted of one hundred 
U 



3S0 HISTORY OF THE 

and fifty-five bishops, who condemned certain writ- 
ings in favour of Nestorianism, called The Three 
Chapters ; together with the errors of Origen and 
his followers. 

St. Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspa, in the district of 
Tunis, was one of the principal Ecclesiastical wri- 
ters, who flourished in this century. He was born 
at Carthage, about thirty years after the Barbarians 
had dismembered Africa from the Roman Empire. 
In the twenty-second year of his age he embraced a 
monastic life, on having read a sermon of St. Augus- 
tine on bl 2 y-anhjF of the world and the short dura- 
tion of human life. 

When Thcodoric, king of Italy, made his first 
entry into Rome, towards the latter part of the year 
500, Fulgentius, who came to offer up his prayers 
at the tomb of the Apostles, seeing him seated on 
an exalted throne, adorned with pompous state, 
•.surrounded by the senate and his courtiers, with 
all the grandeur of the city displayed in the greatest 
magnificence, cried out and said, "Ah, how bcau- 
<* tilul must the heavenly Jerusalem be, if earthly 
" Rome be so glorious 1 What honour, glory, and 
" joy will God bestow on the saints in heaven, 
M since here in this perishable life he clothes with 
" such splendour the lovers and admirers of va- 
c » nity I" In a short time after, having returned 
home, he built a spacious monastery in Byzacena, 
out of which he was forcibly taken, and consecra- 
ted bishop, in the year 503. Whilst he was zeal- 
qvu ly discharging his episcopal duties, orders were 
issued by King Trasamund for his banishment into 
Sardinia, with sixty other orthodox bishops. He 
wrote an ample confutation of Arianism, under the 
title of his Three Books to Sing Trasamund; with 
another book, entitled An Answer to Ten Objec- 
tions. His talen;s for preaching were singular. 
His sermons and homilies are usually short, but 
very pathetic : we have near a hundred still ex- 
tant th t bear his name. His letters arc remarkably 
pious and instructive. His other works are chiefly 
polemical against the Arians, Pelagians, and Ncstc- 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 231 

lians. After the death of Trasamund he returned 
to his flock, and %vas received with the greatest de- 
monstrations of joy. He always proposed to him- 
self St. Augustine for a model, and, as a true disci- 
ple, he imitated him in his conduct, faithfully ex- 
pounding his doctrine and imbibing his spirit. In 
his book On Faith to Peter, he explains the chief 
mysteries of faith, especially the Trinity, Incar- 
nation, sacrifice of the Altar, absolute necessity of 
the true Faith, sincere Repentance, and of living 
in the pale of the true Church. Many other illus- 
trious saints and apostolic men flourished in this 
age, particularly St. Ennodius, the learned bishop 
of Pavia; St. Gregory, bishop of Tours, eminent 
both for his piety and voluminous writings ; St Le- 
ander, bishop of Seville ; St. Maxcntius, abbot of 
Poitou ; St. Aurelius, archbishop of Aries ; St. Be- 
nedict> patriarch of the Western Monks ; St. Ger- 
manus, bishop of Paris ; St. Eulogius, patriarch of 
Constantinople ; St. John, distinguished by the ap- 
pellation of Climacus, from his excellent book enti- 
tled Climax, or the ladder to perfection ; St. Simon 
Stylites the Younger, whose sanctity God was 
pleased to manifest by a great number of miracles, 
to many of which Evagrius Scholastic us, the his* 
torian, declares he was an eye-witness ; St. Euge- 
irius, the renowned bishop of Carthage ; St. Sabbas, 
abbot; St. Gildas ; St. Dackrs, bishop of Milan ; 
St. Aritus, bishop of Vienne in Gaul ; St. Severi- 
nus, abbot of Agaunum ; St. Anastasius, patriarch 
of Antioch, and a prelate of singular learning and 
piety, who vigorously opposed the heresy of the 
Incorru/iticolic, which the Emperor Justinian main- 
tained in his dotage, declaring, by an edict, that 
Christ's body during his mortal state, was neve? 
liable to any alteration, or even natural passion, 
such as hunger, thirst, or pain. Anastasius wrote 
upon that subject with propriety, elegance, and 
choice of sentiments. Theodoras of Heraelea, 
Venantius, Fortunatus, Leontius, Prasilius Ciiix, 
Facundus, Primasius, and Ephsemius of Antioch, 
were in high reputation in this age. Dionysius 



2^2 Hil STORY OF THE 

Exiguus, an abbot in Rome, is also highly com* 
mended for his learning and piety, by Cassiodorus, 
his contemporary. In his Paschal Cycle he first 
began to date the year from the birth of Christ, 
%thich epoch, called the Christian JEra, was every 
•where introduced, soon after the extinction of the 
Consulates, from which the dates had been usually 
taken before. 

Venerable Bede informs us, that in the year 565 
Bridius, the powerful King of the Northern Picts, 
l converted from Idolatry to the faith of Christ, by 
the preaching, virtues, and miracles of St. Columb, 
one of the greatest patriarchs of the monastic order 
in Ireland. This illustrious saint was surnamed 
Columkille, from ihe great number of monastic cell9, 
called Kills, which he had founded in Ireland, before 
lie passed with his disciples from his native country 
into Scotland, and became the Apostle of the North- 
ern Britons and Highlanders. 

Ireland, which had been converted by St. Pa- 
trick in the fifth century from Heathenism toChris- 
aimtjrj abounded through the three buccet ding ages 
with so man? saints, eminent both for their piety and 
learning, that it was styled the Inland of Saints. 
Camden testifies that the English ked 

then to Ireland, as to the mart of sacred literature; 
Which was owing to the labours and apostolic lives 
sties, who were never known 
to abuse the great immunities and secular endow- 
ments conferred on them by the Irish Princes The 
learned Prideanx says, Ireland was celebrated for 
three hundred years after its conversion, as the 
emporium and prime scat of sacred learning in 
Christendom* It was filled with saints ; and the re- 
putation of its school . was so renowned, that stu- 
dents resorted to it from Britain, and many parts 
the continent, for their cultivation, and pro- 
lessors have been in\ited from hence by foreign 
princes to establish seminaries in their dominions. 
IMarianus Scotus says, in his Chronicle, that in the 
eighth century, two Irishmen gave birth to, and laid 
the foundation of, the two first universities in fa 



CtiTJRCH OF CHRIST* 



*33 



world* namely, that of Paris and Pavia. From 
hence several apostolic men have gone with zeal to 
illuminate and convert heathens in South and 
North Britain, in Germany, in the Netherlands, in 
Burgundy, in France, Sec. The fervour with 
which the Irish first embraced the faith, did not 
abate for many ages. They established numerous 
congregations of religious men, eminent in all vir- 
tues. They founded cities in the midst of deserts, 
which they cleared and cultivated with their own 
hands. They erected monasteries in all parts of the 
island, which were so many nurseries of piety, where 
the Christian youth was instructed in the science of 
the saints, and in the literature that leads to it. The 
most numerous and most celebrated of these monas- 
teries was that of Benchor or Bangor, in the county 
of Down, founded about the year 550, by St. Congal, 
under whose direction a great number of fervent 
servants of God seemed to lead an angelic life in 
mortal flesh, employed in tillage or other manual la* 
hours, at the hours that could be spared from the 
duties of prayer, heavenly contemplation, and their 
sacred studies. It is said, that three thousand monks 
lived sometimes together in this abbey, before it 
was destroyed by Danish pirates, who massacred 
here nine hundred of them in one day. The build- 
ings lay in ruins, till they were repaired, in the 
twelfth century, by the care of St. Malachy, the 
Archbishop of Armagh, who rendered Benchor a 
flourishing seminary of learning and piety, though 
not so numerous as it had formerly been. The mo~ 
nastic institute received great lustre from the emi- 
nent sanctity and profound learning of St. Gallus 5 , 
and St. Columban, the disciple of St. Conga!. 

St. Gallus was born soon after the middle of the 
sixth century, and educated in the great monastery 
of Benchor. By his preaching, example, and miracles 5 , 
he converted a great number of Idolaters, near the; 
Lake of Constance, and is justly regarded as the; 
Apostle of that territory. Mabiilon places his death*, 
on the 10th of October, 646. 
V 28 



234 HISTORY OF THE 

St. Columban was a native of Leinster, one ofc 
the four provinces of Ireland. He passed into 
Britain, and thence into Gaul, with twelve other 
monks, about the year 585. He preached with 
wonderful success tn all places through which he 
travelled, and the sanctity of his life added great 
weight to his instructions. His reputation reached 
the Court of Burgundy, under whose protection 
he erected different monasteries in Lorrain. Going; 
afterwards, with some of his disciples, into Swiu 
land, he preached the Gospel to the infidels near the 
lakes of Zurich and Constance. Thence in 
into Italy, where, meeting a kind reception fronn 
Agiluph, King of the Lombards, he built the fa- 
mous monastery of Bobio, in a desert, amidst the 
Appennine Mountains. The affair of the Three. 
Chapters (writings which were condemned in the 
East by the fifth Council at Constantinople, and 
by r'ope Vigilius, as favour! 5 \\ . riani&m) made 
at that time a great noise in Italy Several among 
the Lombards harboured mistaken prejudices in fa- 
vour of the Thrtt Chapters* and erroneously ima- 
gined, that by their condemnation the Council of 
Chalcedon was condemned. These and many other 
mistakes, about the transactions of the Orientals, and 
One (acts that passed at so great a distance, 
tally, as the greatest part of the 
"Westerns, for want of commerce, and through their 
c of the Greek tongue, were strangers to 
>.hc affaire of the East, except what they learned by 
;ue, and often false reports. St. Columban com- 
ing into Lombardy, and being there informed about 
the debate of the Three Chapters, wrote a strong let- 
ter to Pope Boniface IV. in defence of them, at the so- 
licitation ot King Agiluph and Queen Theodoiinda, 
patrons, and persons of singular zeal and piety. 
From this letter it is evident, as Dr Cave observes, 
that St Columban was not rightly informed in the af- 
fair of the Three Chapters, and that he never joined 
the schismatics in Istria. but continued always invio- 
lably attached to the communion of the Roman see. 
Rivet shows, from this very letter, that he then cofl- 



CHURCH OF CHRIST, 235 

formed to the Nicene Decree concerning the cele- 
bra ion of Easter, though he had applied twice to St, 
Gregory for leave to observe the custom he had 
learned in Ireland. Sixteen discourses which he had 
made to his monks, are published in the library of 
the Fathers. Speaking therein of the contempt of 
the world, he cries out, " O transitory life, how ma- 
£ ny hast thou deceived, seduced, and blinded I If I 
" consider the rapidity of thy flight, thou seemest 
" *iotning ; thy existence isjittle more than a shadow. 
'i They who set their hearts on thee, know thee not i 
" they only understand thee, who despise thy enjoy- 
« ments. When thou showest thyself, thcu art 
<c again withdrawn, as if thou wert no mote than a 
•4 phantom. What art thou but a swift course on a 
" road, passing us a bird on the wing, uncertain as a 
" cloud, frail as a vapour, vanishing as a shadow 1" — 
Among the works of St. Lolumban, nothing is so 
much admired as his Rule, which is full of wisdom, 
affective piety, and spiritual unction. He died on 
the 21st of November, 6 «5. 

St. Coemgen, alias Kevin, was horn in 498. He 
founded the famous abbey of Glendaloch, in the 
county of Wicklow, about twenty three miles from 
Dublin. Being raised to the episcop.il dignity, he 
erected a cathederal church near tne church of the 
abbey, which was situated about the middle of a long 
valley, surrounded with very high mountains, from 
whence the water falls over several craggy rocks, 
and leeds two lakes, or rhers, that run through 
the lower part of the valley below ; hence it took 
the name of Glenduloch, which signifies the Glen or 
Valley of the two Lakes* The walls of seven or eight 
buildings, now called the seven Churches, are still 
standing to this day, with the ruins ol St. Kevin's 
cell, and many other curious pieces of ancient 
architecture. St. Kevin died on the 3d of June, 
618, in the i20th year of his age. The episcopal 
sec of Glendaloch was united to the diocese of 
Dublin in 1214. 

Si Fintan, abbot; St. Kenny; St. Colman; St, 
Cataidus, regent of the great school of Lismore, 



Z36 H1ST0RT OF THE 

and afterwards bishop of Tarentum in Italy, with 
many other illustrious Irish saints, ' »d the 
Church about this time with the splendour of t\ . ir 
eminent virtues and learning. Thus God whs pleas- 
ed to kindle new lights in the extremity of the West, 
at a period when the Roman Empire was torn to 
pieces, and when an inundation of Pagan nations 
seized on the greater part of Europe. In that state 
Providence, ever watchful over the Church, erected 
an asylum in this remote island for its repose and 
extension. Ireland, however, in the ninth century 
beiran to feel the grievances which followed the in- 
vasion of the sanctuary in other countries. It was 
infested in its turn by successive swarms of Heathen 
barbarians, who, under the general name of J\ or mane, 
ravaged at the same time the maritime districts of 
France, England, and Scotland, and nothing sacred 
escaped their depredations wherever their power 
prevailed They massacred the ecclesiastics, de- 
molished the monasteries, laid waste the seats of 
learning, and committed their libraries to the flames. 
In these times of confusion the civil power was 
weakened, the national assemblies seldom convened, 
a great relaxation of piety and morals gradually took 
place, and factions among the governors of pro- 
vinces ended in the dissolution of the Irish mo- 
narchy. 



CHAPTER XX. 

The demolition of old Pagan Rome, and the \ 
new Christian Rome from its ashes. 

THE Roman Empire, like all other human struc- 
tures, was built upon a perishable foundation. It 
had its rise and its decline. In its first ages it 
supported itself with wisdom and moderation, un- 
til it reached the maturity of perfection, and ex- 
tended its dominion most amazingly ; but in the 
latter part of its period, its constitution being 
grown old, it tended to a decay irom its own infir- 
wiities and disorders. The Prophet Daniel had* 



CHffRCH OF CHRSIT. 237 

loag before its existence, described its nature : He 
compares it first to iron, c. 2* v. 20, &x. for as iron 
is the strongest of metals, so the Roman state was 
to perform greater achievements than any other of 
the preceding empires, and was to subdue them all. 
Then he compares it to iron mixed with clay, which 
mixture exhibits its subsequent decline, clay denot- 
ing weakness and want of solidity. During the 
time of its consuls and first emperors it lorded over 
the world, but its monarchy dropped afterwards in- 
to pieces, and mouldered away in the hands of Nor- 
thern invaders. The military grew licentious, the 
patricians effeminate, the plebians mutinous, the 
emperors became debauched, dissipated, and cruel 
persecutors of the Christian Religion. The whole 
earth was ransacked to supply their extravagance, 
intemperance, and profusion, and to furnish their 
tables with the most delicious and expensive dain- 
ties. Seneca tells us, that Caius Caligula once 
spent for a supper one hundred and fifty thousand 
erowns, Suetonius informs us, that Vitellius would 
feast himself three or four times a day, spending ten 
thousand crowns at each meal. He had at his table 
dishes made up of the brains of pheasants and pea- 
cocks, others of the tongues and livers of rare birds, 
others of the milts of some particular fish brought 
from distant regions. Nero, in particular, had an 
extravagant passion to rebuild Rome in a more 
sumptuous manner, and extend it as far as Ostia to 
the sea. Suetonius, Dion Cassius> Tillemont, Cre- 
vier, and other judicious writers, charge him with 
being the author of the dreadful conflagration that 
happened in the year 64, and raged for nine days 
with such violence, that out of th£ fourteen regions, 
or quarters, into which Rome was then divided, 
three were entirely laid in ashes, seven were mise- 
rably defaced, and only four entirely escaped the 
disaster. Ail the buildings beii.g burnt and thrown 
down, from the Great Circus at the foot of Mount 
Palatine, to the further end of the Esquilias, the 
cruel tyrant gained the space he wanted to enlarge 
life own palace. Accordingly, he rebuilt a palace 



238 HISTORY OF THE 

of immense extent, and adorned it all over with gold, 
mother of pearl, precious stones, and whatever the 
wond afforded that was rich and curious, so that it 
was called the Golden Palace of Nero. Tertuilian 
observes, that it redounded to the honour of the 
Christian Religion that Nero, the most avowed ene- 
my to all virtue, was the first Roman emperor who 
declared against it in a bloody manner. To excul- 
pate himself, he charged the Christians with having 
yet fire to Rome, though, as Tacitus testifies, nobo- 
dy believed them guilty. Tacitus adds, that Nero 
inflicted the most cruel torments on them, and made 
a sport of their punishment, diverting the people 
with chariot races in his own gardens, whilst the 
innocent victims were devoured by dogs, or, be- 
smeared over with pitch and brimstone, were hung 
on crosses set in rows, and were burnt alive in the 
night, by way of torches. This horrid scene was 
only a prelude to the subsequent inhuman edicts and 
violent persecutions by which this tyrant, and many 
of the succeeding emperors, deluged the Roman 
Empire with Christian blood. They bent their 
whole power to the supporting of idolatry, and to 
the suppressing of the establishment of Christianity. 
Rome, the capital of their empire, and proud mis- 
tress of the world, was then the principal seat of 
Paganism, and the very centre and bulwark of su- 
perstition. It was the greatest enemy of Christ, and 
the chief instrument of Satan in opposing the pro- 
gress of the Gospel. It had provoked the indigna- 
tion of Heaven, by glutting itself with the innocent 
blood of the saints and servants of God. It had car- 
ried its superstition so far, as even to deify its im- 
pious emperors, to build temples to their memories, 
to raise statues, and offer incense to them. It had 
adopted all the heathenish gods of the countries it 
had subdued ; and, lest any unknown god should not 
receive due worship, it had built a temple dedicated 
to all the deities of Paganism, and called the Pan- 
theon, besides 402 other heathenish temples, which 
historians relate to have been erected in that city for 
similar purposes. Old Pagan Rome, therefore^ 



CHURCH OF CHRIST,. 2W 

came a victim of God's anger, and was justly doom- 
ed to drink the full cup of his wrath, even in the 
most conspicuous manner. He had formerly sent 
Njabuchodonozar as a scourge to execute his aveng- 
ing justice against Jerusalem, and Cyrus to destroy 
Babylon ; so, in like manner, he sent the instru- 
ments of his wrath, and executers of his justice, to 
destroy the great imperial city of Pagan Rome, 
which in the Apocalypse of St. John, is styled Ba- 
bylon, on account of the resemblance between it and 
ancient Babylon, as to the extent of its walls, and the 
excess of its haughtiness and cruelty in shedding 
the blood of the holy martyrs. It is of it we are to 
understand the following passage, Apoc. c. 17. De- 
part my people from Babylon, that is, from Pagan 
Rome, which God was delivering up to plunder, in 
punishment of its idolatry and other crying sins. In 
the year 4i0, Alaric took Rome, plundered it for 
three days, and burned it; verifying the prophecy 
of Daniel, c. 7. v. 11. where, speaking of the fourth 
beast that represented Rome with its empire, he 
says, / sazv that the beast was slain, and that its 
body was destroyed, and given to the fire to be burn- 
ed. The greatest part of the public edifices, mag- 
nificent temples, and theatres, triumphal arches, 
Egyptian obelisks, and the so much admired baths, 
were then destroyed. The august palace of the 
emperors, with all their rich furniture, shining or- 
naments, ostentatious pageantry, and pompous trains 
of equipage were consumed by flames, and buried 
m their own ashes. The country all around, which 
was filled with towns and numberless inhabitants, 
whilst Rome maintained her power, was laid waste ; 
the lands of Campania Romana were reduced to a 
desolate desert ; swarms of insects ruined the pro- 
duce and fruits of the earth ; the towns were razed 
to the ground ; the sea overswelied its boundaries, 
and swallowed up whole multitudes; earthquakes 
overthrew several places, and destroyed thousands, 
and many who survived these disasters were 
brought to such extremities of distress, that they 
4iad not the necessaries of life, and were glad to feed 



240 HISTORY OF THE 

on the most filthy things. The Pagans, on seeing* 
Rome and its empire scourged with so many visible 
judgments, renewed their blasphemies against the 
Christian Religion, and pretended that all the cala- 
mities that had fallen on their state, were punish- 
ments inflicted on them by their gods, for having 
permitted the growth of Christianity. To answer 
and refute their slanders, St. Augustine began his 
great work of The City of God, which he finished 
in the year 426. St. Cyprian also wrote a letter to 
Demetiianus, a magistrate of Carthage, to show that 
Pagan Rome and its empire had drawn down the in- 
dignation of the Supreme Ruler of empires, by 
shedding the innocent blood of the Saints, and that 
the evils that befel their state were real punish- 
ments, sent from the True God of Heaven and 
Earth for their cruel persecutions of the Christians. 
The wrath of Heaven was not yet appeased, nor 
was the Divine Justice fully satisfied ; for in the 
year 455, Rome was delivered again into the hands 
ofGenseric, King of the Vandals, who plundered 
it for the space of fourteen days together, and hav- 
ing set fire to it, returned with his army into Africa, 
carrying off an immense booty. Among other rich 
spoils, he carried away the gold and Corinthian 
brass, with which the Capitol was inlaid, and the 
sacred vessels of the Jewish Temple, which the 
emperor Titus had brought from Jerusalem to 
Rome. Again, in the year 47 6, Odoacer, having 
defeated Orestes, and pillaged Pavia, advanced to 
Rome, extinguished its imperial title and dignity, 
trampled its authority under foot, and parcelled 
out, among a set of barbarians, such morsels of 
the Roman provinces as they relished most — 
Odoacer being treacherously murdered in the year 
493, Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, who set- 
tled in Italy, proclaimed himself King of all Italy, 
and having rebuilt the walls of Rome, fixed his 
residence at Verona. From,that time Italy remain- 
ed under the power of the Goths, till Delisarius 
and N arses, two experienced generals in the armies 
of Justinian the Great, having reduced the Gothic 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 2Vi 

power to a low ebb, subdued a considerable part 
of their kingdom, and united Rome to the domi- 
nions of the Greek Emperors, who governed it by 
an exarch residing at Ravenna. Thus this un- 
happy city, which had been the admiration of all 
nations, and the queen of the world, was struck 
down from the pinnacle of power, tossed from hand 
to hand, and became a member of that empire, of 
which she had formerly been the head. However 
Totila, being chosen king of the Goths, found 
means to retrieve the declining state of their affairs, 
and to re-establish a flourishing kingdom in Italy* 
The arm of God being still lifted up against old idol- 
atrous Rome, ready to strike another blow, and 
to pour down a whole torrent of wrath upon her at 
once, Totila invested this unfortunate city, at the 
head of a numerous army, in the year 546. He 
blocked it up so closely, that it could receive no 
provisions, which occasioned a raging famine. At 
length, by the treachery of the centinels posted at 
one of the gatGS, Totila being admitted in the night* 
gave up the city to the pillage of his soldiers, who 
spent several days in plundering the inhabitants. 
Shocking were the barbarities committed by them : 
the walls and fortresses were thrown down ; the 
public monuments were demolished. Rome, in fine, 
was burnt, buried in its own ashes, and reduced 
into a solitude. " Totila," says the historian Pro- 
copius, 1. 3. " carried away with him all the inha- 
" bitants, without leaving one human creature 
u there, and in this condition the city remained de- 
" sert for above forty days." 

Thus was completed the final destruction of an- 
cient Rome. Thus have been accomplished the pre- 
dictions of St. John in the Apocalypse, respecting 
the downfal of the idolatrous emp ire of Babylon the> 
Great, and of the " Harlot who i s said to be clothed 
« with purple and scarlet, with gold, and precious 
" stones and pearls, and to be drunk with the blood 
" of the saints and of the martyrs of Jesus/' to 
denote the purpl e robes and pompous display of the 
Roman Emperors* and the abominations ot idolatry 
X 



242 history of the 

•with which imperial Rome was pulluted, and (be 
blood of the Christian martyrs, with which she was 
stained. Thus in short has been verified the pro- 
phecy of Daniel, c. 2. v. 34. and 35. relative to 
11 the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, 
c; which struck the statue upon the feet and broke 
(i them to pieces, and became a great mountain, and 
" filled the whole earth ;" for it is evident that by 
this stone is meant Christ our Lord, who overcame 
the mighty Empire of Rome, and threw down the 
great Colossus of pagan superstition and fortress of 
idolatry. He is the Lion of the Tribe of Juda, who 
crushed the many headed Hydra of Paganism, and 
overturned the throne which the powers of darkness 
had occupied so many ages, in ancient Rome. He 
is the founder and protector of his Church, and the 
avenger of the injuries done to her. All other 
kingdoms are to have an end, but the spiritual king- 
dom of his Church, being a work of divine con- 
struction, shall last for ever. All other kingdoms 
and empires are to give way to it. " All nations, 
" all people, tribes, and tongues, shall flock to it 
*'• from the extremities of the earth, and to the end 
a of the world." The heavy pressures the mem- 
bers of his Church laboured under in the reign of 
the Pagan Emperors of Rome, served but to purify 
them like gold in a furnace, and to make her rise up 
from the fire of persecution more bright and more 
vigorous. His disciples have always increased in 
number and strength, the more they were oppressed, 
as the Jews in Egypt had done under Pharaoh. The 
very barbarians, who have concurred in the subver- 
sion of Pagan Rome, helped to fill the Church of 
Christ both in the East and West, as if the Provi- 
dence of God) who is master of the human mind, 
and who can call to the orthodox faith whom he 
pleases, had permitted their irruptions into the Ro- 
man provinces with a view to effect their happy con- 
version, as Orosius remarks. In effect, they gra- 
dually renounced their superstitious errors, and 
from Pagans became civilized Christians, obedient 
•.o the laws of the Gospel, From the very ashes of 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 243 

old idolatrous Rome, emerged and rose up like a 
phoenix, a new Christian Rome, privileged with 
the dignity of being an holy Christian city, and the 
head and source of spiritual jurisdiction. She has 
not, indeed, recovered her former temporal domi- 
nion, splendour, and riches, but she has extended 
her spiritual conquests, even amidst civil depression, 
to regions, which her arms never subdued, and has 
derived from the rays of the Gospel, the splendour of 
being the centre of unity in divine worship and reli- 
gion, and the residence of the vicar of Jesus 
Christ. She has defeated the assails pf Satan, in 
the very place where he had erected his throne- 
She has ascended the throne of the persecuting ty-_ 
rants, trampled upon idolatry, and triumphed over 
all the false deities of the Heathens in their own. 
principal temple, the Pantheon, which was converted 
into a Christian Church, by Boniface IV. and dedi-. 
cated to the worship of the true God, in the year 
607. This curious monument of ancient magnifi- 
cence is still extant. It is a master-piece of archi- 
tecture, has neither pillar nor window, but one 
large round aperture in the middle at the top, which 
lets in the light, and underneath in the middle of the, 
floor an orifice of a sink, covered with a concave 
brass plate, bored with many holes, to receive the 
rain that may happen to fall in through the aperture 
at the top. This amazing edifice is a perfect hemis- 
phere or half globe, its height being almost equal 
to its breadth. The diameter is 158 feet. The 
porch is majestic, though somewhat lower than the 
square where is stands. It is supported by a beauti- 
ful colonnade of sixteen grand pillars of Oriental 
granite, and was formely covered with gilt bronze. 
The nitches were likewise decorated with several 
elegant bronze statues of Augustus, M. Agrippa,- 
Mars, and other Pagan deities, which Genseric is said 
to have carried away with him into Africa? 



244 history ogr the 

CHAPTER XXI. 

The Church of the Seventh Century. 

THE apostolic see was filled in this age by Sab*i* 
aian, the immediate successor of St. Gregory the 
Great. Sabinian dying in the seventh year of his 
pontificate, was succeeded by Boniface 111. who 
sat eight months, twenty-three days, and died 
in the year 607. Upon his demise, Boniface IV. 
was chosen and *at till the year 615. Deusdedit, 
a man of eminent santtity, was raised then to the 
pontifical chair, which he held till November, 618. 
After him, Boniface V. was elected, and governed 
ihe Church almost six years. He was succeeded 
fcy Honorius I. who, after a government of thir- 
teen years, departed this life on the \ 2th of October, 
338. His successor, Severinus, died on the 1st of 
August, 640. John IV. being chosen after him, 
died on the twenty-first month of his pontificate. 
Theodorus I. was then placed in the pontifical 
• hair, and held it till the 20th of April, 649. St. 
Martin succeeded Theodorus in the apostolic see, 
and, after suffering all kind of injuries with the 
most heroic fortitude, died in exile on tlte 2 1st of 
September, 655. St. Eugenius I. was then elected, 
and filled the pontifical sec near two years. His 
successor, St. Vitalianus, sat upwards of fourteen 
years. On his demise, in the year 672, Adeodatus 
%vas raised to the pontificate, and held it till the 
36th of June, 676. His successor, Donus, or 
Dornnus I. died in the year 678. St. Agatho suc- 
ceeded him, and died in the year 682. St. Leo II. 
i/iicceeded Agatho, and departed this life in 683. 
After a vacancy of almost a year, St. Benedict II. 
was chosen, and, having governed the Church ten 
months, died on the 7th of May, 685. John V. 
who succeeded him, died in the beginning of August, 
686. He was succeeded by Conon and Sergius 1. 
The former died in the year 687, the latter on the 
7th of September, 701. According to the discipline 
of those times, the aforesaid pontiffs were chosen 
by the clergy and people of Rpme, and as the 



CtiURCrl OF CHRIST, 24 J. 

Christian emperors were the head of the people^ 
their consent was required, which often occasioned 
long delays, and considerable vacancies in the holy- 
see, till the return of the messengers who were sent 
to the East where the emperors resided, to consult 
them upon the election of a new pontiff. 

The peace of the Church was greatly disturbed 
in this age, by the heresy of the Monothelites, 
which was broached as an expedient whereby to 
compound with the Eutychians. It had gained ad- 
mission at the court, and triumphed on the imperial 
throne. It was chiefly broached and supported by 
Theodorus, bishop of Pharan in Arabia ; Cyrus, 
bishop of Phasis in Colchis ; Sergius, bishop of 
Constantinople, and by his successors, Pyrrhus and 
Paul. It made great havoc in some of the principal 
sees of the East, whilst it was powerfully opposed 
by the whole Latin Church, and by a considerable; 
part of the Greek Church. This heresy was Demi- 
Eutychianism, and was called Monothelism, because 
it admitted but one will in Jesus Christ, compound- 
ed of the human and divine, which was called The- 
andric, though its abettors received the council oj: 
Chalcedon, and acknowledged two natures in Christ, 
the divine and human. But this was a glaring in- 
consistency ; because the will is the property of the 
nature, and Christ being God and man at the same 
time, the divine and human natures must have their 
respective powers of volition. Moreover, Christ 
sometimes speaks in the Gospel of his human will 
distinct from the divine, as in his prayer at the time 
of his agony in the garden. Sergius had the arti- 
fice to impose for a while on Pope Honorius, by a 
letter full of craft, dissimulation, and falsehood. He 
persuaded him by captious expressions, to tolerates 
silence on the question of one or two wrlls in Christ, 
in order to prevent disturbances and scandal among 
the ignorant, who might be shocked if the question 
of two operations was to be agitated. It is however 
evident/ from the most authentic monuments, that 
Honorius never assented to the error of the Mono- 
thelites, but always adhered to the truth, and heiti 

x a 



246 HISTORY OF THE 

with St. Leo, and the Catholic Church, the doctrine 
of two wills in Jesus Christ, and that he only denied 
that there were in Christ, as in us sinners, two wills, 
contrary and opposite to one another, that of the 
flesh, and that of the spirit, that is to say, a will of 
concupiscence, which revolts against the spirit. Ho- 
norius was undoubtedly wrong in agreeing for some 
time to be silent on the article in question,because this 
indiscreet ill-timed silence, though not so designed, 
might be deemed by some a kind of connivance. 
He should have been more active in extinguishing 
the error in its first rise, when the sparks appeared ; 
for a rising heresy seeks to carry on its work under 
ground without noise, it being a fire which gradual- 
ly spreads itself under cover. The emperor Hera- 
clius adopted Monothelism, whereby he tarnished 
the glory he had acquired by 1 is bravery and 
virtue. He began with commanding silence touch- 
ing one or two operations in Christ, and afterwards,, 
in the year 639, published an edict called Ect/iesis, 
or the Exposition, which was drawn up by Sergius, 
I condemned in a council at Rome by John IV. 
The< imperial edict published by his grandson, Con- 
stantius, Ln the year 648, and imposing silence in 
the point controverted, called the Tyfiuw% or the 
J>"or77iulari/, was likewise condemned by Pope Theo- 
dore, in a council held in the church of St. Peter. 
The holy Pope St. Martin also held a council of 
105 bishops in the Lateran Church, wherein he 
censured the Ecthesis of Hcraclius, and the Tyfxua 
of Constantius, and solemnly condemned Sergius, 
Pyrrhus, and Paul, the ringleaders of the Mono- 
thelite sect. The Ectha>is was censured because it 
was entirely favourable to the Monothelites, and 
the Formulary^ because it imposed silence, and for- 
bid to mention either one or two operations in Christ. 
* The Lord," said the Lateran Fathers, " hath com- 
" manded us to shun evil and do good : but not to 
" reject the good with the evil : we are not to deny 
" at the same time both truth and error " The em- 
peror Constantius was so much exasperated hereat, 
tbat he sent OJyrapiu* first, and then Calliopas, in 



CHURCH O* CHRIST* 247 

quality of exarch, into Italy, with an order either to 
cause Martin to be massacred, or sent prisoner into 
the East. Martin being at length seized at midnight, 
was carried in a boat down the Tiber to Porto, where 
he was put on board a vessel to be conveyed to Con- 
stantinople. It is almost incredible with what bar- 
barity he was treated: being stripped of his sacer- 
dotal pallium, he was chained with an iron collar 
about his neck, and confined to a dreary dungeon at 
Chersonesus, where he endured the greatest hard- 
ships with heroic patience, until he resigned his 
soul into the hands of the Lord. 

The Monothelite heresy was at length effectually 
suppressed, and solemnly condemned in the year 
680, by the sixth General Council, and third of 
Constantinople, in the reign of the pious emperor 
Constantine Pogonatus. This council consisted of 
166 bishops, or, according to the annals of the 
Greeks, of 289. St. Agatho presided thereat by 
his legates. With a view of adding a supplement 
of new canons to those of the fifth and sixth general 
councils, two hundred and eleven bishops of the 
Greek Church held the council, called Quinisext) in 
an hall in the imperial palace at Constantinople, 
named Trullus, in the year 692, which laid a founda- 
tion of certain differences in discipline between the 
Eastern and Western Churches. 

The orthodox faith shone in this age with the 
highest glory and lustre, in the zeal, sufferings, and 
death of St. Maximus, surnamed, by the Greeks, 
Ilomologetes, or confessor. He held a public con- 
ference with Pyrrhus, the Monothelite, at Carthage, 
in the year 645, and by force of his arguments oblig- 
ed him to retract all he had done or taught against 
the faith, but the dissembler soon relapsed into his 
errors. The writings of St. Maximus are printed 
in two volumes in folio, and consist of mystic or al- 
legorical commentaries on the Scripture ; of com- 
mentaries on the works attributed to St. Denis the 
Areopagite ; of polemic treatises against the Mono- 
thelites; excellent ascetic discourses, letters, and 
spiritual maxims, principally on charity. The Mo- 



248 HISTORY OF THE 

nothelites found also a formidable adversary in St. 
Sophronius, patriarch of Jerusalem, who explained 
the Catholic faith in an excellent synodal letter, 
which was confirmed by the sixth General Council. 
His sermons breathe an affecting piety. In a ser- 
mon on the exaltation of the cross, he mentions the 
custom of taking the cross out of its case at mid- 
lent to be venerated. He deplored the abomination 
of desolation set up by the Mahometans in the holy 
place. Before his promotion to the Patriarchate, he 
lived twenty years near Jerusalem, under the direc- 
tion of John Moschus, the holy hermit, who wrote 
the Spiritual Meadow, wherein he gives an account 
of the edifying examples of virtue which he had seen 
or heard, when he visited the monasteries of Egypt, 

St. Anastasius, the Sinaite, flourished likewise in 
this age, and confuted the errors of the Eutychians 
and Acephali, by an excellent work entitled Odegus, 
or, the Guide. He wrote several ascetie works, full 
of piety and devotion. In his discourse on the 
Synaxis or mass, he uvges the duties of confession 
to a priest, respect at mass, and pardon of injuries, 
in so pathetic a manner, that Canisius and Cam- 
besis recommend this piece to the diligent perusal 
of all preachers. 

St. Isidore, archbishop of Seville, to extend to 
posterity the advantages which his apostolical labours 
hud procured to the Church, compiled many useful 
works, wherein he takes in the whole circle of the 
sciences, and discovers a most extensive reading, 
and a general acquaintance with the ancient writers, 
both sacred and profane. He died in the year 636. 
The most famous of his works are twenty books of 
Etymologies, or, Origins, in which he lays down the 
principles of the different sciences. His three books 
of the Sentences, or on the summutn bonum, are a 
summary of theology. In his two books on the Di- 
vine or Ecclesiastical Offices, he explains the cano- 
nical hours, ceremonies, feasts, and fasts of the 
Church. His monastic rule resembles that of St. 
Bennet : In it he orders mass to be said for every 
deceased brother, and on Monday in Whits un week 
for all the faithful departed. 



CHURCH Off CHRlb?iV 249 

St. Omer, or Audomarus, bhhop of Tarvanne, in 
*Belgic Gaul ; St. Ouen, or Audoen, archbishop of 
Rouen ; St. John the Almoner, patriarch of Alex- 
andria, &c. lived in this age. The other principal 
fathers, saints, and ecclesiastical writers of this cen- 
tury, were St. lldephonse and St. Julian, archbishops 
of Toledo; St. Braulio, bishop of Saragossa ; St* 
Rupert, bishop of Saltzbourg, and apostle of the Ba- 
varians and Bohemians ; St. Cuthbert, bishop of 
Lindisfarne ; St. Theodorus, of Siceon in Galatia ; 
it. Anastasius I patriarch of Antiochia; St. Aid- 
helm, bishop of bherburn ; St. Theodard and St* 
Lambert, bishops of Maestricht ; St. Kiiian* who, 
eommissioned by Pope Conon, preached the Gospel 
in Franconia, with amazing success ; St. Eligius f 
apostle of the Flemings and Western Saxons; St. 
Columba, who converted the Swedes ; St. Rumold, 
apostle of Mechlin ; St. Livin, of Ghent; St. Wil- 
librord, consecrated by Pope Sergius, first bishop of 
Utrecht, in the year 696; St. Swidbert, and many 
•ther apostolic and learned men, to whose indefati- 
gable zeal, preaching, and illustrious miracles, Frise- 
land, Brabant, Holland, Guelders, Cleves, and other 
parts of Lower Germany, are indebted for their 
Christianity 

Alford and Cressy relate, that it was about the 
close of this century that the pious virgin St. Wene- 
fride suffered Martyrdom at Holy-Well, in North 
Wales. The wonderful spring at this place, is in 
itself far more remarkable than the celebrated foun- 
tain of Vaueluse, five leagues from Avignon, fa- 
mous for the retreat of Petrarch the poet, or that of 
La Source, two leagues from Orleans, where Lord 
Bolingbroke built himself a house, these being no 
more than subterraneous rivers; but at St. Wene- 
fride's well such vast quantities of water spring con- 
tinually without intermission or variation, that above 
twenty-six tons are raised every minute, for if the 
water be let out, the basin and well, which contain 
at least 240 tons, are filled in less than ten Mi- 
nutes. 



250 HISTORY OF THE 

CHAPTER XXII. 

The rise and firogress of Mohometanism* 

WHILST the Church, brilliant as the rainbow 
in all its glovy, was shooting her rays of brightness 
on every side through the clouds that surrounded her; 
whilst the apostolic labours of her pastors and doc- 
tors were crowned with the most amazing success 
in the different nations, which, like so many frag- 
ments, had been torn from the body of the western 
empire, the Arabians and Saracens, by their incur- 
sions, were spreading alarms through all the East> 
and carried their insults to the very gates of Con- 
stantinople. The Greeks, exhausted by the wars 
they had supported in the West, and in the East 
against the Persians, were constantly overthrown and 
defeated by the barbarians, who spread themselves 
like a torrent over the empire, and overturned every 
thing that opposed their passage. The Emperor 
Heraclius, astonished at their victories, and demand- 
ing one day in council what could bt* the cause, a 
grave person of the assembly stood up and said, M It 
" is because the Greeks have dishonoured the sanc- 
* tity of their profession, and no longer retain the 
44 doctrine taught by Jesus Christ and his disciples. 
" They insult and oppress one another, live in en- 
<c mity and dissentions, and are abandoned to the 
" most infamous usuries and lusts." In reality, the 
vices and disorders of the Greeks at that period ex- 
cited such odium, that the very infidels held them in 
detestation, if we may give credit to their own most 
celebrated writers. Their frequent defeats were 
looked upon by the Emperor himself to be a just 
punishment of their sins, by which they provoked 
the vengeance of Heaven, and drew upon their na- 
tion the scourges of Divine Justice. It was in the 
reign of Heraclius that the sect of Mahomet wae 
suffered to establish itself among the Saracens, who 
then laid the foundation of an empire equal to thn; 
of the Romans. Mahomet, or rather Mahommed, 
Voachcd his impostures at Mecca, in the 38th yen 1 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 251 

of his age, and the 608th of the Christian aera, set- 
ting himself above Jesus Christ, whom he notwith- 
standing acknowledged to be a great prophet. Not 
like the Apostles, who had planted the holy Christian 
religion by means evidently divine, this famous im- 
postor ushered into the world his pretended revela- 
tions and carnal sensual religion by open violence 
and other means merely natural. He established 
his sect by letting loose the reins to the passions, and 
destroying with the sword such as refused to sub- 
mit to his impious tenets. With the help of a Jew 
and a Nestorian Monk, called Sergius, he compiled 
his Alcoran, or the book of his new religion, which* 
is a monstrous compound of absurdity and nonsense, 
and a strange medley of Judaism, Christianity, old 
heresies, and extravagant imaginations, without de- 
sign or connexion. There are indeed in it some 
passages that strike with a certain air of gran- 
deur, but the whole is so foolish and puerile and so 
full of repetitions, that one would need much pa- 
tience to read any part of it even once. He boasted 
that he had received his abominable doctrine from 
the angel Gabriel, and attributed to his visits the 
epileptic fits, to which he was subject, saying, but 
not producing any other proof but his own bare 
word, that these fits were trances and convulsions, 
occasioned by the angel's presence, which was more 
than he was able to bear. He adopted circumcision, 
and prescribed abstinence from wine, blood, and 
pork, but exploded the incarnation and all distinc- 
tion of persons in the Deity. On the other hand, he 
allowed every man to have four wives, and concu- 
bines without restriction, reserving to himself the 
liberty of marrying as often as he pleased, inso- 
much that he is said to have had at least fifteen 
wives, and ten of them together. His doctrine 
meeting with opposition at Mecca, he was compelled 
to fly to Medina, in the year 622, and it was from 
this flight that the Hegira of the Arabs, that is, the 
aera and epoch, from which the Mahometans date 
their years, commenced. In the year 628, Maho- 
met was declared chief in religious and civil mattery 



I 



252 HISTORY OF THE 

with the title of Profiket. His followers were distin- 
guished by the name of Mussulmen. The Saracens, 
so called from Saraca^ a city of Arabia, embraced 
his system of religion, attracted by the latitude he 
allowed them to indulge their sensual desires and 
carnal pleasures. In the beginning he was joined 
with a little army of proselytes, chiefly consisting 
of thieves and fugitive slaves, whom he exhorted to 
take up arms for religion, and to propagate it by the 
power of the sword, promising a paradise of all 
sensual pleasures and delights to those who should 
die fighting in that cause. He began bis conquests 
at Medina, and from that period the Saracen power 
advanced with great rapidity, and grew to an amaz- 
ing height in less than thirty years. At first Ma- 
homet attacked the caravans, that travelled through 
the country for trade, and meeting with great suc- 
cess, he enriched his followers, and enlarged his pro- 
jects. Actuated by a fanatic rage he possessed 
himself of the town of Mecca, and carried the sword 
of destruction from one tribe of people to another, 
forcing them either to adopt his new religion or to 
pay him an annual tribute. Hence it is easy to con- 
clude, that ambition, lust, and cruelty, were the cha- 
racteristics of Mahomet. Before his death, which 
happened at Medina, in the year 632, he was mas- 
ter of almost all Arabia. Aboubeker, whose daugh- 
ter he had married, succeeded him under the title 
of Cali/ih, or vicar of the prophet. He died after a 
reign of two years. Omar, his successor, and the 
second caliph, took Damascus, and after a siege of 
two years, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria, the 
reduction of which was followed by the conquest of 
all Egypt He built a mosque at Jerusalem, in the 
place of Solomon's Temple, and because it fell in 
the night, the Jews told him it would not stand, un- 
less the Cross of Christ, which stood on Mount Cal- 
vary, was taken away ; which O oar caused to be 
done, as Theophanes tells us, page 284. He even 
blocked up Constantinople with a fleet of eighteen 
hundred ships, which were destroyed by fire and 
tempest, three hundred thousand men haying pe- 



CHURCH OF CHRIST, £53- 

jisjhed then with pestilence and hunger. Shortly 
after the Caliph seized on Tripoli and almost ail 
Barbary, and extended his conquests all along the 
coasts, on the Mediterranean sea, to the streights of 
Gibraltar. In the course of Othman's reign, who 
succeeded Omar in the year 643, all Persia submit* 
ted to the Saracen yoke. They blocked up the 
whole island of Cyprus, in the year 648, with seven* 
teen hundred ships, and subdued it. They also re- 
duced the island of Rhodes, and other islands in the 
Mediterranean, and in the year 668, they brought 
away from Africa an innumerable multitude of cap- 
tives, having taken eighty thousand from Syracuse 
alone. From Africa they passed into Spain, where 
they made settlements, and were called Moors, be* 
cause they came frpm Mauritania in Africa. They 
also made several incursions into France and Italy, 
and committed the most horrid barbarities, and gave 
sad specimens of their cruelty, burning the towns, 
crucifying the principal citizens, massacreing men, 
women, and children, and spreading terror wherever 
they came. By so many conquests, the Saracen 
empire grew too un wieldly in the hands of one ru- 
ler, and therefore his vast dominions were at length 
divided into several independent dynasties, or prin- 
cipalities. The governors appointed by the Ara- 
bian caliph over the different provinces renounced 
their subjection, set up their own authority, and be- 
gan to enlarge their respective dominions. Some 
of them carried their victorious arms into the vast 
country of Indostan, and reduced a great part of it. 
Qther princes,T>r sultans, (a word that signifies the 
king of kings,) as they were then called, aided by 
different tribes of Tartars or Turks, that issued 
from the Northern countries above the Caspian Sea, 
made irruptions into the Asiatic provinces of the 
Greek empire, and having settled in that tract of 
Asia, now known by the name of Georgia, and Tur- 
comania, made peace with the Saracens, and em- 
braced the Mahometan religion. Upon the death of 
Aladin, sultan of Iconium, in Lesser Asia, Othman, 
the Arabian Sultan, obtained the sovereignty of this 



254 HISTORY OP THE 

country, and laid the foundation of the vast empire 
of the Turks, which from his name is called the 
Ottoman Porte. The empire of the Saracens be- 
ing thus swallowed up, the succeeding Turkish sul- 
tans, inheriting the warlike spirit of Othman their 
founder, subdued in process of time the greatest 
part of the provinces of the Eastern empire, and 
reduced the Greeks to such straits, that nothing 
seemed left to be conquered but the imperial city 
•of Constantinople. But Tamerlane, the founder of 
<> great empire in Tartary, a generous and valiant 
prince, to defend the Grecian empire against the 
encroachments of the Turks, fell upon them, and 
having defeated them near the banks of the Euphra- 
tes, took their sultan Bajazet, and kept him prisoner 
in an iron cage. Notwithstanding this check, the 
Turks afterwards continued their conquests over 
"both the Saracens and the Greeks, till they at length 
"became masters both of Constantinople and Tre- 
bisond. Such has been the rise and amazing growth 
of Mahometanism. It has been permitted, through 
God's inscrutable judgments, to overspread those 
regions which had enriched the Church with the 
Ignatiuses, the Polycarps, the Basiis, the Ephrems, 
the Chrysostoms, the Augustines, the Cyprians, the 
Jeromes, and Gregories. Palestine, which after 
having been for above fourteen hundred years God's 
chosen inheritance under the Old Law, was sancti- 
fied by the presence, labours, and sufferings of 
Christ, gave birth to his Church, and was watered 
•with the blood of innumerable glorious martyrs, has 
thus fallen a prey to the most impious and gress su- 
perstition. Greece, so famous in history, once the 
seminary of learning, the nursery of piety, and the 
fertile parent of legions of eminent saints, and 
Egypt, heretofore renowned for eighteen thousand 
cities, and said to be inhabited by twenty-seven mil- 
lions of Christians, now, alas ! groan under the Tur- 
kish yoke, and are buried in the darkness of infideli- 
ty. So many flourishing churches in the East, 
planted by the labours of the Apostles, have been 
abandoned to Barbarians, and treated like the vine- 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 255 

yard, mentioned in the 5th c. of Isaiah, which was 
at length abandoned, and the time of forbearance- 
being expired, was delivered up to be plundered 
and trodden under foot, like a desert. This, indeed, 
is a dreadful instance of the justice of God, who, 
for his own wise reasons, sometimes withdraws the 
gift of faith from one nation to give it to another, 
and who, when provoked by the crying sins of his 
people, employs their very enemies as a scourge to 
punish them. However, in proportion as the light 
of the Gospel was weakened in the East, by the con- 
quests of the Mahometans, it darted its beams to- 
wards the West and the North, and the flambeau of 
faith, like unto the Sun in the Heavens, began im- 
mediately to enlighten one country on quitting an- 
other. By this economy, which is usually observed 
in the course of Divine Providence, the Church 
continues always Catholic^ as she gains in one plae* 
what she loses in another. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

The Church of the Eighth Century. 

AMIDST the scandals, schisms, and heresies, 
that assaulted the Church at different times, the 
providence of God never failed to raise up zealous 
pastors and apostolic men, filled with his Holy Sp:« 
rit, and qualified to instruct his people, and defend 
the purity of the orthodox faith. The prophet 
Isaiah foretold this constant, and perpetual succes- 
sion of pastom and teachers in the Church of Christ, 
when he said : " Upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, I 
" have appointed watchmen, all the day and all the 
" night, they shall never hold their peace." The 
chief pastors of the Church in the eighth century, 
were John VI. who filled the pontifical chair from 
the close of the year 70 J, till the 9th of January, 
705. John VII. who sat near three years, Sisin- 
nius twenty days, Constantine about seven years ? 
St. Gregory II. upwards of fifteen years, St. Gre- 
gory III. about ten years, St. Zachary ten years, 



S57 HISTORY OF TI1J3 

Stephen II. three days, Stephen III. five years, 
Paul I. ten years, Stephen IV. about four years, 
Adrian I. renowned for his piety and erudition, about 
twenty^ four years, and Leo III. about twenty years. 

The succession of saints and ecclesiastical writers 
was kept up by St. John Damascene, St. Paulinus 
of Aquileia, St. Germanus, St. Tarasius, Venerable 
Bede, St. Lullus, archbishop of Mentz, St. Burkard, 
first bishop of Wurzburg, in Franconia, St. Hidul- 
phus, archbishop of Triers, St. Rumold, bishop of 
Dublin, who was crowned with martyrdom at 
Mechlin in Brabant, in the year 755, St. Hubert, 
bishop of Liege, St. Boniface, St. Adelbert, St. 
Lebwin, St. Willibald, St. Marchlem, St. Eoaban, 
St. Wigbert, St. Werenfrid, St. Waiburga, St. Wit- 
la, St. Tecla, St. Sola, St. Virgilius, St. Egburt, Al- 
cuin, Theodolphus, of Orleans, Elias, of Crete, FI,o- 
rus, of Leodicea, Fredegardius, Isidorus, PaulUs, 
"and several others, who by their eminent sanctity, 
learning, and miracles, served to stem the torrent of 
barbarism and ferocity, which every where followed 
the arms of the Saracens. 

The conduct of Christ towards his Church, which 
he planted at the pries of his blood, cannot be con- 
sidered attentively without admiring the adorable 
counsels of his tender Providence. This Church, 
so dear to him, and so precious in his eyes, never 
was, never is, never will be, without some persecu- 
tion, either open or hidden, either general or par> 
ticular. He formed and spread it from the very be- 
ginning undermost severe and dreadful persecutions, 
lie exposed it in every age to frequent violent storms, 
and seems to delight in always holding at least some 
part or other of it in the fiery crucible. But the 
days of its severest trials have been those of its most 
glorious triumphs. Then it shone, above all other 
periods of time, with the brightest examples of 
sanctity, and formed in its bosom the most illustrious 
heroes of all perfect virtue. There is not an arti- 
cle of her faith but has been attacked by the fals^ 
reasonings of unbelievers, and the experience of 
pastuges shows, that some Christian emperors have 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 257 

been no less inimical to her than the Pagan emperors 
of Rome, and that the persecutions which sprung 
from heresies were never more violent than after the 
ten general persecutions had ceased. The divinity 
of Jesus Christ, the incarnation, his grace, his sa- 
craments, in fine, all the dogmas of faith have be- 
come from time to time the subject of different he- 
retical errors, and have given occasion to fatal 
divisions and altercations. But these heretical errors 
could never prevail, though they were supported 
by a Constantius, a Valens, Sec. who had no more 
power to alter or corrupt the faith, than Nero and 
Dioclesian had to hinder it from being established. 
The Church, which saw so many heresies rise, saw 
them all vanish out of sight, one after the other, 
and can point out their authors and first cause, the 
time and place of their origin, with their progress 
and downfal. She has always been extremely- 
watchful and attentive to discover the tares that 
grew up among the wheat, and zealous in opposing 
the growth of every heresy, however obscure or spe- 
culative, at its first appearance. The errors of 
Tertuilian, Origen, Lactantius Arnobius, Cassian, 
and of the holy bishop St. Cyprian, could not escape 
her watchful eye, notwithstanding the reputation of 
their wit and learning, and the high esteem their 
orthodox writings are justly held in by all men of 
letters. Ail this could not save their errors from 
being combated and condemned. So careful is the 
Church of every age to adhere closely to the purity 
of the primitive faith, and to hand it down to pos- 
terity precisely as she received it from the Apostles, 
without overlooking the smallest innovation, or suf- 
fering the slightest deviation from it. It is evident 
from the genuine histories of her councils, and from 
the writings of the holy Fathers, that she always 
laid it down as an invariable rule and principle, not 
to depart one single iota from the ancient faith, but 
to adhere firmly to the doctrine received from the 
preceding generation, and to convey it pure and 
undeiiled to the succeeding generation, without any, 
even the fcast addition or diminution. By this 
Y 2 



2i5 HISTORY OF THS 

means, it becomes impossible that her faith should 
ever be altered or corrupted. Her discipline may, 
indeed, vary, according to the circumstances of 
time and place, but her doctrine of faith is always 
the same, and will always be the same to the end of 
the world ; for if the Church of the second century, 
for example, believed nothing as revealed truths, but 
what she received from Christ and his Apostles in the 
first century, it is manifest that the faith of the first 
and second century was perfectly the same. And 
it' the Church of the second century delivered the 
same entire and uncorrupted to the Church of the 
third century, then the faith of the third century 
must infallibly be the same with the faith of the two 
preceding centuries, and the same must necessarily 
be the case with every succeeding century to the 
present, and will be throughout all ages. Moreover, 
the promised assistance of the Holy Ghost to teach 
the Church all truth, and to abide with her for ever, 
puts this matter beyond the possibility of any doubt, 
for he guides the great body of the pastors of his 
Church into his truth through all ages, not indeed 
by continual successive inspirations, but by directing 
and assisting them by his all-wise and all-powerful 
protection, in discharging the oince of teaching all 
nations, without any danger of leading them astray. 
Hence it is, that the Church cannot be deceived in 
any point of faith, for though individuals, whereof 
she is composed, are fallible, and liable to errors, 
yet the whole body of the Church is infallible, this 
infallibility not being grounded on the holiness, wit, 
or learning of fallible men, nor depending on the 
personal merits, or natural qualifications of any as- 
sembly of men, but being derived from the assurance 
of God's unerring word, and owing to the sacred in- 
fluences and infallible direction of the Holy Ghost. 

The Church being thus placed under the protec- 
tion of Heaven, and the guidance of the Holy Ghost, 
had already weathered out many violent storms, and 
triumphed over several formidable heresies, which 
had taken their rise in the East. Another dreadful 
storm was raised against her in the eighth century 



CHURCH OP CHRIST. 259 

by the Iconoclasts, or Image-breakers, who made 
their appearance in the year 726. The heresy of these 
fanatics was the more dangerous, as it had the em- 
peror Leo the Isaurian for its author, and was warm- 
ly supported by his son and successor Constantino 
Copronymus, and by his grandson Leo, surnamed 
Chazarus. The Isaurian, though ignorant of the 
elements of the Christian doctrine, had the vanity to 
commence reformer of religion, and become chief- 
tain of this new sect. By an imperial edict which 
he published, he ordered the sacred images and pic- 
tures of Christ, of the Blessed Virgin, and of the 
Saints, to be taken out of the churches, and to be 
broken and burnt in the public streets of Constanti- 
nople, to the great scandal of the faithful, who mur- 
mured and complained loudly, on seeing Christ and 
his S:tints thus dishonoured in effigy. The statues 
of the Emperor were, on this occasion, overthrown 
in several places, and when he complained that his 
person was thereby affronted, he was reproached 
with offering a similar affront to Jesus Christ and 
his Saints, and told that by his own confession the 
indignity offered to the images reflected upon the 
original. 

But the Emperor, being infatuated by certain 
Jews, who had gained an ascendant over him, by 
pretended astrological predictions, endeavoured to 
establish his heresy by bloodshed and violence. Deaf 
to the remonstrances, tears, and entreaties of the or- 
thodox bishop's of the East, and of Gregory II. the 
tyrant sent orders to several of his officers to kill 
the holy Pope, though he strenuously maintained the 
people of Italy in their allegiance to their prince, 
and pacified the mutineers in the West, as Anasta- 
sius assures us, whilst he signalized his zeal in op- 
posing every innovation in the faith, and in settling^ 
a reformation in manners, during the fifteen years, 
eight months, and twenty -three days that he held the 
pontificate Constantine Copronymus carried on for 
twenty years the sacrilegious war which his father 
Leo had begun against holy images. In the year 
754j he caused a pretended council of 333 Iconoclast 



260 HISTORY OF THE 

bishops to meet at Constantinople, and to condemn 
the use of holy images, as a remnant of idolatry. In 
all parts of the empire he persecuted the Catholics, 
to compel them to subscribe to his decree, and those 
who refused to consent to his impiety, were treated 
with the utmost severity. The eyes of several were 
pulled out, their noses were cut off, they were cruel- 
ly scourged, beheaded, or cast into the sea. Copro- 
nymus levelled his malice chiefly against the monks, 
and sent a body of armed men to burn down the fa- 
mous monastery of Mount S. Auxentius, near Chai- 
cedon, to the very foundation, and to disperse all the 
monks, because they would not come into his mea- 
sures. In particular he persecuted St. Stephen the 
abbot, and employed several stratagems to draw him 
into a snare, knowing that the reputation of his sanc- 
tity and miracles multiplied the defenders of holy 
images. 

But all his efforts to shake the Saint's constancy 
proving ineffectual, St. Stephen was taken into cus- 
tody, loaded with irons, and presented for examina- 
tion before the Emperor, who asked him, whether 
•he believed that men trampled on Christ, by tramp- 
ling on his image ? " God forbid," replied St. Ste- 
phen. Then taking a piece of the Emperor's coin 
in his hand, he asked what treatment he should de- 
serve who should stamp upon that image of the Em- 
peror ? The assembly crying cut, that he should be 
severely punished, " Is it then," said the saint, u so 
;; great a crime to insult the image of the Emperor 
" of the Earth, and none to cast into the fire the 
k< image of the King of Heaven 2* The Emperor, 
confounded and transported with rage, commanded 
that he should be beheaded, but recalled nee 

before Stephen reached the place of execution, re- 
solving to reserve him for a more cruel death. After 
some deliberation, he sent an order, that he shot; Id 
be scourged to death in prison, but the execution 
leaving the work imperfect, the holy maityr was 
shortly after dragged through the streets, with his 
feet tied with cords, and his brains were dashed out 
with staves and clubs, a r j Cedrenus and Theopfianes 
inform us. 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 26* 

Leo IV. who continued the persecution that had 
"been raised by his father and grandfather, dying 
miserably, in the year 780, after a five years' reign, 
and having left his son Constantine, but ten years 
old, under the guardianship of the Empress Irene, 
his wife, a stop was put by her to the persecution of 
the Catholics, Irene was always privately a Ca- 
tholic, though an artful ambitious woman, and she 
so managed the nobility in her favour, as to get the 
regency and the whole government cf the state into 
her hands. Having dethroned her son Constantine, 
ahe caused his eyes to be plucked out with some vio- 
lence, that he died of his wounds in 797. Irene 
reigned five years alone, after which she at length 
met with the deserved reward of her ambition and 
cruelty ; for in the year 802, she was deposed by 
Nicephorus, her chief treasurer, and banished into 
a monastery in the Isle of Lesbos, where she died in 
close confinement in 803. Nicephorus assumed the 
Imperial diadem on the last day of October, 802. 
He was one of the most treacherous and perfidious 
of men, dissimulation being his chief talent, and it 
was accompanied with the basest cruelty against all 
whom he suspected to be his enemies, as Theophanes 
tells us. He was a fast friend to the Manichees, or 
Paulicians, and was fond of their oracles and super- 
stitions to a degre of phrensy. He grievously op- 
pressed the Catholic Bishops and monasteries, and 
when remonstrances were made to him, his answer 
was, My heartM hardened : Never expect any thing 
but what you see from Nicefihorus. When he was 
setting out in May, 8 1 1, to invade Bulgaria, St. Theo- 
dorus the Studite reproved him for his impiety, ex- 
horted him to repent, and foretold that he never 
would return from that expedition. But regardless 
of the salutary counsel given him, he entered Bul- 
garia with a superior force, and refused all terms 
which Crummius, king of the Bulgarians, offered 
him. The barbarian being driven to despair, came 
upon him by surprise, attacked and slew him in his 
tent on the 25th of July, 811, and caused a drinking 
eup to be made of the Emperor's head, to be used 



262 HISTORY OF THE 

on solemn festivals, according to the custom of the 
ancient Scythians. The flower of the Christian 
army perished in this battle. Great numbers were 
made prisoners, and many of these were tortured, 
hanged, beheaded, or shot to death with arrows, 
rather than consent to renounce their faith, as the 
Pagan Bulgarians required. 

Whilst the Iconoclasts were disturbing the peace 
of the Church, Paul, patriarch of Constantinople, 
the third of that name, being touched with remorse 
for his condescension in some respects to the then 
reigning heresy, quilted the patriarchal see in order 
to end his days in a monastery, and repair the scandal 
he had given. St. Tarasius was therefore chosen 
patriarch by the unanimous consent of the court, 
the clergy, and the people. Finding it in vain to 
oppose his election, he was solemnly consecrated on, 
Christmas Day. He declared, however, that he 
could not in conscience accept of the government of 
a see which had been cut off from the Catholic com- 
munion, but on condition that a general council 
should be called to compose the disputes which di- 
vided the faithful at that time, in relation to holy- 
images. This being agreed to, St. Tarasius wrote 
to Pope Adrian on the subject of a general council, 
begging that he would either come in person, or 
send his legates for this purpose to Constantinople. 
In consequence hereof, the seventh general council 
was opened on the first day of August, in th# 
Church of the Apostles, at Constantinople, in the 
year 786, but being disturbed by the violence and 
tumults of the Iconoclasts, it met again the year fol- 
lowing, in the famous church of St. Sophia, at Nice. 
It consisted of 350 bishops, besides many learned 
abbots, and other holy priests and confessors, who 
condemned the sham council held under Coprony- 
mus, as wanting all the conditions necessary to a 
general council, and extinguished the sanguinary 
heresy of the Iconoclasts, until it was revived in the 
sixteenth century. 

The Fathers thus assembled refuted all their ob- 
jections as to every article. They produced the 



CHURCH or CHRIST. 263 

testimonies of the Scriptures, and the constant tra- 
dition of the Church in all ages, in favour of the 
relative honour due to holy images. They declar- 
ed, that images ought to be set up in churches, as 
well as crosses, because the oftener people behold 
holy images or pictures, the oftener they are excited 
to the remembrance of what they represent ; that 
those images are to be honoured, but not with the 
worship called Latria, which can only be given 
to God ; that the honour paid to images passes to 
the archetypes, or things represented, and he who 
reveres the image, reveres the person it repre- 
sents. This is what the faithful are taught in the 
first rudiments of their catechism, and it was to in- 
culcate the same doctrine that, as Mr. Weever, a 
learned Protestant writer, in his discourse on funeral 
monuments, p. 117, testifies, these Latin verses 
were formerly written under the pictures of Christ 
in all abbey churches in England, before the disso- 
lution. 

" JEffigiem Chris ti dum transis, semper honor a. 
u Non tamen effigiem, sed quern designate adora. 
u Nam deus est quern imago docet, sed non Deus ifisa : 
<fc Hunc videos, et mente colas quod cernis in ilia." 

That is, in English, Honour the image of Christy 
vjhilst thou pass est by, adoring not the image, but 
him whom it represents. 

The CounciLof Nice declared this to be the doc- 
trine of the Fathers, and tradition of the Catholie 
Church, which is the rule that the Church follows 
when her dogmas of faith are impugned and called 
in question. She assembles a lawful council, in 
imitation of the Apostles, whose spirit she inherits. 
She makes no new articles of faith, but only un- 
folds the truths originally revealed by Jesus Christy 
and taught by the Apostles and their lawful suc- 
cessors in the ministry. She examines what has 
been the belief of all ages and of all nations, which 
are there present in their respective pastors and pre- 
lates, and declares more explicitly what was ancient- 



264 HISTORY OF THE 

ly believed by Christians of every age, in relation t« 
the matter in debate. 

St. Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople, stre- 
nuously defended the faith, with equal zeal, learn- 
ing, and prudence, first against the Monothelhes, 
and afterwards against the Iconoclasts. In the most 
degenerate times he kept virtue in countenance, and 
vice in awe. He was seconded herein by that il- 
lustrious Father of the Church, St. John, sur- 
liamed Damascene, from the city of Damascusj 
\\ here he was born in the decline of the seventh 
century. He took up the pen in defence of the 
faith, and zealously entered the lists against the 
Iconoclasts, when he saw the Church assailed by 
them. He proved, that the inferior veneration 
which is paid to the friends and servants of God, is 
entirely different, and infinitely beneath the su- 
preme adoration due to God alone, and no more 
inconsistent with it, than the civil honour which 
the law of nature and the holy scriptures command 
\is to pay to princes and superiors. The dogmati- 
cal writings of this great doctor show the extent of 
his genius still more than his controversial. His 
most important and celebrated work is, The Exposi- 
tion of the Orthodox Faith, divided into four books. 
St. Paulinus, of Aquileia, wrote three books against 
the pestilential errors of Elipandus, and preached 
with great success to the Avares, a barbarous na- 
tion of Huns in Pannonia. The famous Alcuin, a 
monk at York, wrote seven books against Felix of 
Urgel, and omitted no opportunity of exerting his 
zeal in defence of the faith. His comments on the 
Scripture consist in extracts from the ancient Fa- 
thers. His moral works breathe a sincere piety ; 
the dogmatic are solid and close. His letters, of 
which there are upwards of one hundred and eighty- 
two published, are curious and interesting. 

Venerable Bede was " a singular and shining 
« light," in the eighth century, as Camden calls 
him, and, according to Leland, " the brightest or- 
" nament of the English nation ; most worthy, if any 
" one ever was, of immortal fame." He was ordain*- 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 265 

ed priest in the year 702, by St. John of Beverly, bi- 
shop of Hexham, and afterwards of York. In king 
Alfred's version, Bede is styled Mass Priest, because 
it was his employment to sing every day the con- 
ventual mass in the Church belonging to his monas- 
tery, which consisted of about six hundred monks. 
His writings are a kind of Encyclopedia^ or uni- 
versal library. All the sciences and every branch 
of literature were handled by him: Natural Philo- 
sophy, the philosophical principles of Aristotle, As- 
tronomy, Arithmetic, the Calendar, Grammar, Ec- 
clesiastical History, and the lives of the Saints ; 
though works of piety make up the bulk of his writ- 
ings, which have been published in eight tomes. — 
His comments on the Old and New Testament, and 
his homilies and sermons, prove that meditation on 
the Word of God, and the writings of the holy Fa- 
thers, chiefly engrossed his time and attention. He 
wrote his history of the English Church in the year 
731, and died in 762, ninety years old. The famous 
Alcuin is said to have been a scholar of his, and to 
have composed the following epitaph for him, when 
his remains were deposited in St. Paul's church at 
Jarrow, on the banks of the river Tyne : 

<c Hac sunt in fossa Beda venerabilis ossa" 

Here lie the bones of venerable Bede. 

St. Boniface, who calls Bede " the lamp of the 
« English Church," flourished also in this age, and 
acquired the__title of Apostle of Germany. Burn- 
ing with zeal for tke divine honour, and for the 
salvation of souls, he bewailed night and day the 
misfortune of those nations which lay benighted in 
the shades of infidelity. Going, therefore, to Rome, 
in the year 7 i9, he presented himself to Pope 
Gregory II. and having begged his apostolic bles- 
sing, and commission to preach the faith to all the 
infidel nations of Germany, he was constituted arch- 
bishop of Mentz, and laboured with such fervour 
that he baptized many thousands of idolaters, and 
founded several respectable churches. After con- 
verting the Hessians, Thuringians^ and Bavarians? 
Z 



266 HISTOUY OF THE 

lie planted the standard of the cross in East Frise- 
)and, where he was crowned with martyrdom in 
the year 76 5, with fifty-two priests and deacons, 
who were assisting him in civilizing; and planting 
the spirit of meekness and Christian piety in that 
fierce and then uncivilized nation. St. Corbinian, 
bishop of Frisengen ; St. Willibrord, first bishop 
of Utrecht, and several other apostolic missionaries, 
co-operated at this time in the conversion of a great 
part of Holland and West Friseland. 

St. Virgilius, also a native of Ireland, was dis- 
tinguished at this period for his devotion, zeal, 
chanty, and sacred learning. He travelled into 
France, in the reign of King Pepin, and being 
courteously received by him, he laboured strenu- 
ously for the conversion of infidels. St. Boniface 
wrote a complaint against him to Pope Z a chary, 
alleging, that a certain priest named Virgilius, 
taught that there were other men under the earth, 
another sun and moon, and another world, where- 
upon Zachary answered, that if he taught such 
an error, he ought to be deposed. But St. Boni- 
face mistook Virgiluis's opinion about the anti- 
podes, as If he had taught that there was another 
race el ;.'cr, who descended not from Adam, and 
were not redeemed by Christ, which would be 
heresy. However, Zachary did not pronounce any 
sentence it) this case, nor condemn the doctrine 
of the spherical figure of the earth, as some wri- 
tcrs have erroneously imagined; for he ordered 
in the seme letter, that Virgilius should be sent to 
uic, that his doctrine might be examined; and 
he seems to have cleared himself, for we find that 
he \ after promoted to the episcopal see of 

Saflthtirgh. Many ancient philosophers, indeed, 
ttibught tue earth flat, not spherical, and beli-jved 
no antipodes. This was a vulgar error in philoso- 
phy, in which faith no way interferes ; but it is a 
mistake to imagine that this was the general opinion 
of the Christian philosophers, for St. Bahil, the 
two St. Gregories of Nazianzum and of Nyssa, and 
. Athanasius, taught the world to be a sphere 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 26.7 

and St. Hilary, Origen, St. Clement, Pope, Sec. 
mention Antipodes, as the learned Philophonus de- 
monstrated before the modern discoveries. — -1. 3, 
c. 13. de M. Creat. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Church of the Ninth Century, 

THE chief pastors of the Church of this cen- 
tury, after Leo III. were Stephen V. St. Paschal 

I. Eugenius II. Valentine, Gregory IV. Sergius 

II. St. Leo IV. Benedict 1IL St. Nicholas 1. 
Adrian II. John VIII. Marinus I. Ad rain III. 
Stephen VI. Formosus, Sthephen V1L Romanus, 
Theodorus II, and John IV. Stephen V. tilled the^ 
apostolic chair seven months, and died in January, 
817. The day after his death St. Paschal was 
elected. He sat seven years, and died in February, 
824. His successor, Eugenius II. governed tho 
Church three years, was called the father of the 
fioor, and died in August, 827. Valentine died the 
same year, on the fortieth day after his election 
and consecration. Gregory IV, died on the 29tli 
of January, 844. Sergius II. died in the year 847, 
St. Leo IV. was elected in the same year, and held 
the pontificate eight years, three months, and some 
clays. He repaired the Confes.nG?i* or burial place of 
St. Peter, with the altar which stood upon it after 
the Saracens from Calabria had plundered St. 
Peter's church. St. Leo likewise enclosed the whole 
Vatican hill with a wall, and built there a new 
Rione, or quarter of the city, called from him Leo- 
yiina. He also rebuilt or repaired the wails of 
Rome, and fortified it with fifteen towers. Being 
inflamed with a holy zeal, he vigorously exerted 
his authority for the reformation of manners, and 
of the discipline of the Church, and enforced every 
duty of the pastoral charge with no less learning 
than piety. Among other miracles performed by 
this holy pope, it is recorded, that, by the sign of 
the cross, he extinguished a great fire in Rome, 



3-68 HilSTORY OT TK*E 

Upon his demise,, on the 17th of July, 855, Bene- 
dict III. was immediately chosen, by the unanimous* 
consent of the people, and consecrated on the ls'fc 
of September, in the same year, 855, as is attested 
by Anastasius, the Bibliothecarian, " the mos'fc 
" learned man then living, and the most shining 
' ornament of that age," according to Dr. Cave. 
$orne prejudiced writers have pretended that the 
series of the succession between Leo IV. and Bene- 
dict III. has been interrupted by the intrusion of a 
^he pope, whom they called Joan. But this is an 
idle tale, and a most notorious forgery, fabricated 
after the death of Martinus Polonus, who in the 
year 1277 wrote a chronicle, in which this fable 
has been since inserted. It is wanting in the true 
manuscript copy of Martinus Polonus, which is 
kept in the Vatican Library, and in other old ma- 
nuscript copies, as Allatius, Lambelius, Boerhavc, 
David, Burnet, Carlew, Sec. testify. Blondel, a 
violent Calvin ist, has, by an express dissertation, 
demonstrated the falsity of this ridiculous fable. It 
^vas borrowed from a chronicle which Marianus 
tScotus wrote at Mentz in 1083, and which was also 
probably falsified. Here mention is first made of 
it, and it was not to be met with in the oldest and 
best copies deposited in the Imperial Library at 
Vienna* and the Royal Library at Paris, until it 
was foisted in a leaf written in a different character. 
Moreover, the very frame rs and propagate rs of 
this tale have sufficiently discredited it in their own 
narrations, for they do not agree as to the name 
or country of this pretended woman, some saying 
that she was born at Mounts in England, though 
no such place was ever heard of, others alleging, 
that she sat two years five months, and that she 
had studied at Athens, an university which did not 
exist then, but had been destroyed many years be- 
fore. Neither i'hotius, nor the-Greek schismatics, 
ever objected this to the Latins, for which reasons 
the learned agree now that this female pope never 
had a being upon earth. 

Benedict III. having governed the Church till 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 269 

April, 858, was succeeded by St. Nicholas, who 
held the Pontificate from the year 858 till Novem- 
ber, 867. His successor, Adrian II. held it till the 
year 872. John VIII. being then chosen, sat till 
December, 882. Marinus I. called also Agapitus* 
died in 884. His successor, Adrian III. died in 
885. Stephen VI. died in the sixth year of his 
pontificate, in September, 891. Formosus died in 

896. Stephen VII. was then raised to the pontifical 
chair, by the power of Adelbert, Marquis of Tus- 
cany, but, after sitting about thirteen months, he- 
was imprisoned, and strangled to death, in the year 

897. Romanus was chosen pope the same year, 
but dying about the fourth month after his election., 
he was succeeded by Theodorus II. who sat only 
twenty days. John IX. was then canonically elect- 
ed, and died in August, 900. 

The succession of saints and ecclesiastical writers 
was kept up in this century. St. Theophanes 3 
abbot, wrote his Chronografihia in the year 8; 4. St. 
Nicephorus, successor of St. Tarasius, and arch- 
bishop of Constantinople, wrote several tracts 
against the Iconoclasts, wherein he also most evi- 
dently establishes the real presence of the body of 
Christ in the Eucharist. St. Methodius, patriarch 
of Constantinople, purged that Church of heresy 
and instituted an annual feast of thanksgiving 
called the festival of the Orthodoxy. St. Ado, arch., 
bishop of Vienne ; St Nicetas, abbot ; and St. Bene, 
diet, abbot of Anian, lived in this age. St. AdaL 
bert, bishop of Prague, converted great numbers i n 
Poland, planted the faith at Dantzic, and is styled 
the Apostle of Prussia; St. Prudentius, bishop f 
Troyes, was one of the most learned prelates of the 
Gallican Church ; St. Ludger, bishop of Munster i 
$nd apostle of Saxony and Westphalia, converted 
Slumbers of Pagans and vicious Christians, founded 
several monasteries, and built many churches; St. 
Eulogius, of Cordova, then the capital of the Moors r 
or Saracens, in Spain, who tolerated the Christiana 
Religion there among the Goths, exacting only a 
csnain tribute every new moon — lived also in -this* 
2 % 



270 HISTORY 0? THE 

age. The writings of St. Eulogius breathe tua in- 
flamed zeal and spirit of martyrdom. The chief ot 
them are his History of the Martyrs, called the Mc~ 
mortal of the Martyrs^ and his Apology for thent 
against their calumniators. St. Anscarius, archbi- 
shop of Hamburgh and Bremen, distinguished him- 
self likewise by his virtue and learning. He preached 
with great success, first to the Danes ; and in the 
year 830 he planted the faith in Sweden, and in the 
Northern parts of Germany. St. Cyril, with his 
brother, St. Methodius, who obtained leave from 
Pope John VIII. to celebrate the liturgy in the 
Sclavonic tongue (torn. 9. Cone. Labbe\ p. 176,) af- 
ter converting the Sclavonians and Russians, in the 
year 842, were instrumental to the conversion of 
Michael, king of the Bulgarians, and of his whole 
nation, in the year 865, as Joseph A^semani testities. 
They afterwards passed into Moravia, and baptized 
the king of that country, with a considerable part of 
lus subjects. St. Frederick, bishop of Maestricht; 
Halitgarius, bishop of Cambray ; Amalarius, bishop 
of Treves ; Rabanus Maurus, archbishop of Mentz ; 
Haymo, bishop of aalberstadt ; Hincmar, archbishop 
ot Rheims, and a prelate of great learning, whose 
works are published in two volumes, folio; Wale- 
fridus Strabo ; Anastasius, the Librarian ; Remigi- 
us of Auxerre ; Jonas of Orleans; Duogaidus ; 
Bertharius ; Theodoi us Gi apius ; Agobardus ; Pas- 
chusius Rudbertus, abbot of Corbie; St. Switl in ; 
bishop of Winchester, Sec flourished also in this 
century. Malmesbury affirms, that a great number 
of miracles were wrought at the translation of St. 
Ssvithin's relics. The learned Lanfred wrote in the 
year 980 a history of this translation, and of several 
miraculous cures wrought through the saint*s inter- 
cession. The works of Rabanui Maurus are print- 
ed in six tomes. Whilst he was abbot of Fulde, he 
made that monastery the greatest nursery of science 
in Europe. The long commentaries of Paschasius 
Rudbert on St. Matthew's GospJ, are a learned and 
useful work, wherein he solidly confutes the errors 
of Gothescale the Predcstinarian, who blasphemous- 



efcURCH OF CHRIST. 271 

ly asserted, that the reprobate were doomed by God 
to sin and hell, without the power of avoiding either. 
He also wrote against John Seotus Erigena, a native 
of Ireland, and a subtle sophist in the court of Charles 
the Bald, infamous (or many absurd errors in faith 
and philosophy, particularly agamst the mystery of 
the Real Presence, lhe most iumous of the works 
of Paschasius Radbert is his book On the Sacrament 
of the ALtar, or on the body and blood of Christ in 
the Eucharist, which he revised afterwards, and 
dedicated, in the year 844, to king Charles the Bald f 
who had desired to see it. 

St. Theodorus Stuuite distinguished himself like- 
wise in tins age by his sanctity and by his zeal against 
the Iconoclasts : for Leo the Armenian becoming 
Emperor in the year 81 3, and being himself an 
Iconoclast, renewed the war against holy images* 
and endeavoured both by artifices and open violence 
to re-establish that heresy. In 814, he studied by 
crafty suggestions to gain over the holy patriarch 
Nicephorus to favour nis designs. But St. Nice- 
phorus answered him : " We cannot change the 
" ancient traditions ; we respect holy images, as we 
" do the Cross and the book of the Gospels. " For 
it must be observed, that the ancient Iconoclasts 
venerated the book of the Gospels, and the figure 
of the Cross, though by an inconsistency usual in 
error, they condemned the like relative honour with 
regard to holy images. The Saint showed, that far 
from derogating from the supreme honour of God 9 
we honour him when for his sake we pay a subordi- 
nate respect to his angels, saints, prophets, and mi- 
nis iers, and when we give a relative inferior honour 
to sacred vessels, churches, images, and other in- 
animate things, which belong to his service. But 
the tyrant being fixed in his errors, sent St. JNice- 
phorus into .banishment, and intruded into his see 
one Theodosius, an impious officer of the court* 
In vain did the Saint, with several holy prelates, 
entreat the Emperor to leave the government of the 
Church to its pastors, and to let the ecclesiastical 
affairs be discuss e d by them, as being the competent 



27£ HISTORY OF THE 

judges. " My Lord," said St. Theodorus, the StU- 
dite, " Do not disturb the order of the Church, 
" God hath placed in it apostles, prophets, pastors* 
" and teachers. Your majesty he has intrusted 
« with the care of the state ; but leave the Church 
" to its pastors." " For these eight hundred years 
" past," said Euthymius, bishop of Sardes, " since 
" the coming of Christ, there have been always 
" pictures of him, and he has been honoured in 
" them. Wno shall now have the boldness to abo- 
" lish so ancient a tradition ?" Michael the S'am- 
merer, who after the death of Leo the Armenian? 
ascended the imperial throne on Christmas Day, in 
the year 820, was engaged in the same heresy, and 
persecuted St Ntcepharfas, who died in his exile, in 
the monastery of St. Theodorus, being about 
Seventy years old. 

The origin of the Greek schism, commenced by 
the usurper Photius, renders the life of St. Ignatius, 
the holy patriarch of Constantinople, an interesting 
part of the history of the Church of this century. 
In the year 858, he was most unjustly banished 
from his see, and Photius the Eunuch was intruded 
into the patriarchal chair by Bardus Caesar, uncle 
to the young emperor Michael, without even so 
much as the formality of an election. Photius, se- 
cretary to the emperor, and master of the horse, 
was a prodigy of genius and learning, but his great 
qualifications were debased by a consummate depra- 
vity of soul. He was the most cunning and deceit- 
ful of men, and a most daring impostor, always 
ready to sacrifice every thing to an unbounded am- 
bition. Anastasius relaies, that when St. Ignatius 
was advanced to the patriarchal dignity in the year 
846, Photius began to decry his virtues, and dispu- 
ted that every man has two souls. St. Cyril of 
Thessalonica reproving him for this error, Photius 
replied, that he meant not to hurt any one, but to try 
the abilities and logic of Ignatius, 'i o which wretch- 
ed excuse St. Cyril answered : u You have thrown 
« your dans into the midst of the crowd, yet pretend 
• ; no one will be hurt. How great soever ^ie eye? 



Q.HVRCH OF CHRIST. %7*3 

« of you* wisdom may be, they are blinded by the 
" smoke of avarice and envy. Your passion against 
•' Ignatius has deprived you of your sight" The 
unjustifiable proceedings and errors of Photius being 
at length notified to, and censured by the Apostolic 
see, he broke out into an open rebellion, and gave rise 
to the Greek schism, which was founded upon the 
most frivolous pretences and notorious slanders ima- 
ginable. In short, Photius was condemned by the 
eighth General Council, which was held by an hun- 
dred and nine bishops, in the Church of St. Sophia, 
at Constantinople in the year 869. The legates of 
Adrian II. presided hereat, and the schism of Pho- 
tius was in a great measure extinguished at his 
death, 'till it was revived by Michael Cerularius 
in the eleventh century. St. Ignatius having, af- 
ter a long series of severe trials, recovered his 
dignity, applied himself to his pastoral functions 
with so much patience, charity, zeal, and vigilance, 
as showed his sanctity and experience were much 
improved by his sufferings. He died on the 23d ©f 
October, 878, being near four-score years old. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

The revival of the Western Empire, l?c. by Charles 
the Great. 

THE piety of Charlemagne, or Charles the 
Great, son of King Pepin, was a subject of great 
joy to the Church in the ninth century. The west- 
ern empire which had been extinguished in Mo- 
mylus Augustulus, in the fifth century, was revi- 
ved in him, and raised up again, though not to its 
former splendour. In the year 800, on Christmas 
Day, he was crowned and anointed by Leo III. in 
St. Peter's Church, Emperor of Rome, and of the 
West. ^ France, Flanders, Germany, a great part 
of Spain and Hungary, and almost all Italy, were 
subject to him. He waged a tedious war against 
the Saxons, which terminated in their conversion. 
The late JLing of Prussia; in his elegant memoirs 



CT4 HISTORY OF THE 

of the house of Brandenburgh, tells us. that the con- 
version of the country of BraHdenburgb was began 
by the conquests and zeal of Charlemagne, and 

completed in 928, under Henry the Fowle c, 
agaiii subdued that territory, which was orij 

.bited by trie Sarmatians, the most savage of all 
the Northern idolaters, and such strangers to the 
;gance of temples, that they adored their false 
is under oak trees, and sacrificed prisoners taken 
sir enemies to their idols, 
rlemagne extended his conquests along the 
sts of the German ocean, as far as Dt 
He conquer c Gothia, or Languedoc, quelled 

the seditious at Rome, and restored Leo III whom 
they had treated with the utmost barbarity. He v. 
a zealous protector of the Church during his loi 
and prosperous reign, and left nothing undone to 
promote the happiness of his people, and to extir- 
pate the reigning vices of the age. When D 
derius, the last king of the Lombards, ravaged the 
lands v ; Pepin had offered o os- 

tolic see. Charlemagne marched into Italy, defeat- 
ed the forces of the Lombards, put an end to thch* 
usurpations, took Pa\ r a long b 

ieir kingdom, and led Desidcrius captive 
to Gaul. On this occasion Ik 
ed king of I ith an iron crown, such as I 

Goths and Lombards in that country had u- 
perhaps as an emblem of strength. He then | 
confirmed to Pope Adrian I. the donation of his 
father Pepin, who had given to Stephen II. 
successors, the city of Rome, and its :;na, 

Rimini, Pesaith Fano, Sinegaliia. A 

ie exarchate of Ravenna, the duchy of Spcieto, 
kc But as this point of history is much misrepre- 
sented by some modern writer-, in order to set 
a true light, it is to be observed, that from the 
ign of Constantine the Great, many large pos- 
sessions had been bestowed on the popes for the ser- 
vice of the Church, whereby it was enabled to 
:: form many acts of universal charity, and found 
»r the relief and support of great 



CHURCH OF " :"j 

be- 
queathed Viterbo. A 
and a con side. 

'. Peter. 
. 27. tells us 
Allien I >a and the 

far as r.he boui I Gaul, were fcrr. 

estate oft'; Jt vrere - 

Lomb bi 

-cad fire 

in the time ory II. finding ther ibso- 

and being refused l : G reel E m - 

perors, took up arms in defence of their 
property, and chose in many places leaders 
ihem- -ugh the Pope exhorted them e 

r not to revolt against their lawful princes, but 
m ain in t h - nee and fide I e m - 

Stephen IJ. 

.red the succours and !.:: 

: : : c: : C: -:.%.:. : .: A-v \ 

yards. Whereupor 
. and in the name of the Roman people, who 
pon the popes as their fat. ::uar- 

. he sought that protection from Pepin Ki 
a, which the Greek Emperor had refi 
Pep:: nbassadors : :o I 

llphus would restore what he had taken 
the Church of Rome, and repair the damages he 

in Italy. Astulphus refusing tc 
with these conditions, 1 

Italy, defeated the Lombards, and took As '. - 
= Hier in ?..v:.-. b s. 
his kingdom on condition he should live in a 

Pope Immediately after E depar- 

ture, Astulphus perfidiously broke his treaty. d 
took again, wh to ret 

into Italy, where ha 
capturec A:, him v A 



276 HISTORY OF/Tfi£' 

death, if he ever again took up arms against the Ro- 
mans, he once more restored him his kingdom, tak- 
ing from him the exarchate of Ravenna, which he 
gave to the Apostolic see, upon a principle laid 
down by Puffendorf, Grotius, Fontanini, and others, 
and founded upon the law of nations, that he who 
conquers a country in a just war, no ways under- 
taken for the former possessors, nor in alliance with 
them, is not bound to restore to them what they 
would not, or could not protect or defend. Hence, 
when the ambassadors of the Greek Emperor de- 
manded of Pepin the restitution of the countries he 
had conquered from the Lombards, that Prince an- 
swered, that as he had exposed himself to the dan- 
gers of war merely for the protection of St. Peter's 
see, not in favour of any person, he never would 
suffer the Apostolic Church to be deprived of what 
he had bestowed on it. Thomassin observes very 
justly, that Pepin could not give away dominions, 
which belonged to the Emperors of Constantinople ; 
but if he had conquered the Goths of Italy, or the 
Vandals in Africa, before Justinian had recovered 
those dominions, who will pretend that he would 
have been obliged to restore them to the Greek 
Emperors ? Or, if the Britons had repulsed the Sax- 
ons after the Romans had abandoned them to their 
fury, might they not have declared themselves a 
free people ? The Greeks had by their sloth lost 
their right to the exarchate of Ravenna, after they 
had suffered it to be conquered by the Lombards, 
without sending succours during so many years to 
defend and protect it. Those countries, therefore, 
either by the right of conquest in a just war belong- 
ed to Pepin and Charlemagne, who bestowed them 
on the Popes, or, the Roman people became free, 
and being abandoned to barbarians, had a right, when 
the Greeks refused to afford them protection, to 
6eek it from others, or to form themselves into a 
new government. The Greeks themselves after- 
wards ratified the partition made of the Italian do- 
minions, when Charlemagne was crowned Emperor 
of the West* and not only Irene t who was then Em- 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 277 

press of Constantinople, but likewise her successor 
Nicephorus III. solemnly acknowledged him in the 
quality of Augustus. 

Charlemagne was a lover and encourager of 
learning, being sensible that it is the highest im- 
provement of the human mind, and no less condu- 
cive to the good of religion than to the welfare of 
the state. He set a just value on the arts and 
sciences, and placed all his glory in promoting the 
study of every branch of true and useful learning. 
He invited over into his dominions the two learned 
professors Clement and John, from Ireland, and men 
of the most consummate erudition from other foreign 
parts, to become teachers in the public schools 
which he founded at Paris, Tours, Bologna, Pavia, 
&c. He appointed the celebrated Alcuin to open a 
great school in his own palace, and generally assist- 
ed at his lessons with the princes, his sons, and other 
lords of his court. By the advice of so wise a mas- 
ter he made several literary establishments for the 
revival of the sciences, and instituted an academy, 
consisting of many learned men, who met on cer- 
tain days to discourse on points of sacred learning. 
He had St. Augustine's book On the City of God, 
laid every night under his pillow, to read, if he 
awaked. He caused several synods to be held for 
the advancement of piety and the reformation of 
manners, and the decrees therein framed are called 
his Cafiitulars. The Carolin books are a theologic- 
al work, adopted by this prince, and compiled in 
four books, against a falsified} copy of the second 
council ®f Nice, sent by certain Iconoclasts from 
Constantinople. This accounts for the mistake of 
the Carolin books, and the council of Frankfort, an. 
794, can. 2. concerning the doctrine of the Nicene 
Council. They had not seen the Greek original, 
but only a Latin and vicious translation of it, which* 
occasioned the mistaken opposition they gave to the 
decree about honouring sacred images. At length 
the Almighty was pleased to call Charlemagne to 
the. enjoyment of a better life, in the72d year of his 
age. He was, buried at Aix-ia-Chapelle. Afte* 
2 A 



278 HISTORY OF THE 

his death, the imperial dignity was transferred from 
France to Germany. It was conferred first on 
Otho, and is swayed at present by the august house 
of Austria. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

The Church of the Tenth Century, 

THE succession of chief pastors in the apostolic 
>ee was continued in this age by Benedict IV. who, 
^fter the death of Theodorus II. and John IX. go- 
verned the Church till October, 903. His immedi- 
ate successor, Leo V. did not hold the pontificate 
two entire months, according to that verse of Flo- 
uoardus : Emigrat ante suiun auam luna bisimpleat 
Qrbem. Christopher was then raised to the ponti- 
fical chair the same year, about the beginning of 
November ; but being compelled to abandon it, he 
was sent first into a monastery, and afterwards into 
a prison, where he ended his days. After him the 
pontificate was occupied seven years by Sergius 111. 
two years by Anastasius III. six months by Lando, 
fourteen years by John X. seven months -by Leo 
VI. about two years by Stephen VIII. and upwards 
of five years by John XL who was succeeded, in the 
year 936, by Leo VII. of whom Flodoardus writes : 
" Deditus assiduis firecibus, sjieculamine celsus, 
u Affatu latus, sajiiens atque ore serenus" 
Constant in firay'r, in meditation high, 
Removed from, earth, and tending to the sky ; 
Wise, gentle, humble, cheerful, modest, kind, 
Grace in his sfieech, and virtue in his mind. 

Upon the demise of Leo VII. Stephen IX. sat 
three years and some months. Marinus II. his suc- 
cessor sat about four years, and died in June, 946. 
Agapetus II. was chosen the same month, and died 
in the eleventh year of his pontificate. The apos- 
tolic see was then successively occupied by John 
Xll. Benedict V. who died in 965, John XIII. who 
died in 972, Domnus II. Benedict VI. Benedict VII. 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 279 

John XIV. John XV. and Gregory V. who was 
raised to the pontificate in 996, and died on the 18th 
of February, 999. Sylvester II. succeeded him in 
the month of April of the same year, and died on 
the 11th of May, 1003. Some writers look upon 
John XVI. to have been an antipope. 

This age was indeed happy in this respect, that 
no considerable heresy arose, or was broached in 
it, for which reason there was no occasion for ge- 
neral counciLsj nor for so many ecclesiastical writers, 
as in the foregoing ages. Swarms of armed barba- 
rians overran Germany, England, France, Italy, 
and Spain, carrying desolation with them wherever 
they went, pillaging churches, massacreing priests 
at the foot of the altar, burning houses, and re- 
ducing cities to ashes. Scandals were multiplied ; 
the most holy laws were publicly violated ; studies 
were much neglected ; and people, devoted to the 
profession of arms, looked with contempt on the cul- 
tivation of letters. Virtue, of course, began to decay 
among the generality of Christians, and a relaxation 
of morals ensued, and reached the very sanctuary. 
Rome itself was not exempted. The Church be- 
wailed these disorders, which were a thousand 
times- more excruciating to her than the persecu- 
tions *of the Pagan emperors. Through the ty- 
ranny of despots, and the violence of contending 
factions, some few bishops, incapable of writing 
their names, (perhaps about six in ail Christendom) 
are said to have been intruded , 6n different episcopal 
sees. By the power of the counts of neighbouring 
territories, and by the intrigues of Marozia, wife 
to Guy, marquis of Tuscany, and her mother and 
sister, both called Theodora, three women of scan- 
dalous lives, some unworthy popes have, by unjust 
usurpation, and not by canonical election, been 
thrust into the apostolic chair, and disgraced their 
high station by the immorality of their lives. How- 
ever, as the wickedness and usurpation of an Al- 
cimus could not destroy the Aaronic priesthood, so 
the immoralities of some few intruders could not 
destroy the Christian priesthood, nor prejudice the 



£80 HISTORY OF TfiJE 

spiritual prerogatives of the Church of Christ. H{s 
Providence appeared the more remarkable in still 
protecting her upon such occasions, amidst all the 
scandals and disorders with which she seemed to 
t>e almost overwhelmed. He would not suffer the 
Devil to wrest out of his hands the inheritance and 
kingdom which his Eternal Father gave him, and 
which it cost his most precious blood to establish. 
He permitted for a while some vicious men to 
sit on the chair of St. Peter, as the Scribes and 
Pharisees sat on the chair of Moses, but his sin- 
gular Providence always interposed in defence of 
the Church, to let the world see that nothing 
could make void his promises, and that it is his 
all-powerful hand that supports the Church, " and 
not the hands of men. He promised to be with 
her all days to the consummation of ages. He pro- 
mised infallibility to the great body of her pastors, 
in their public doctrine, but he has no where pro- 
mised them impeccability in their conduct. Go, 
said he to them, teach all nations : Babtize and 
teach them to observe all that I have ordained, and 
I will be with ye. &c. In virtue of this promise, 
he is always with the pastors of his church, to 
guarantee them from all error in the doctrine of 
faith, but not to exempt them from all vice; for he 
did not say, as the great Bossuet observes, I will be 
with you practising all that 1 have commanded, but 
/ will be with ye teaching. Hence, to show that the 
mark of the true faith was attached to the profession 
of the public doctrine, and not to the innocence 
of their morals, he said to the faithful, who are 
taught, Do all that they say, and not what they do. 
It is evident, therefore, that the conservation of the 
Church does not depend upon the sanctity of her 
pontiffs, and that their misconduct should cast no 
more aspersion on her than the fall of Judas did 
on the college of the Apostles, or the rebellion of 
Lucifer on the hierarchy of the angels. The fate 
of temporal kingdoms may, indeed, be attached to 
theconduct of the princes who govern them ; but 
the ca,se is different with regard to the spiritual king- 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 281 

dom of the Church, because it is Christ himself 
-who supports her foundation. His infinite wisdom 
takes care to over-rule the infirmities of her pas- 
tors, and to make them even become subservient to 
his designs, however immoral some individuals may- 
happen to be in their own practice. He will never 
suffer the Christian morality or the Catholic belief 
to undergo the smallest alteration, or the least cor- 
ruption in the public instructions, but will ever pre- 
serve the doctrine of Verity in the chair of Unity, 
and make the streams of Faith run very pure, even, 
in the worst of times, There never was an instance 
of any pope who attempted to alter the creed, or who 
taught and proposed any bad doctrine from the 
apostolic chair, to be believed by the Church, or 
who issued any decree concerning faith and sound 
morality, that was contrary to the sacred truths re- 
vealed by Jesus Christ. Though a few, out of the 
great number, have not been so irreproachable 
in their private character as they should have been, 
and though they have, at times, assumed a temporal 
authority that did dot belong to them, yet it is re- 
markable that they fever formed any decree on this 
point, and that any errors into which they might 
have been led, w r ere no more than mere errors of 
fact, owing to a misrepresentation or false state- 
ment of cases, or to the mistaken politics and pre- 
judices of the times, that wer* then sanctioned by 
temporal kings and princes themselves. 

Some writers style this century the iron and dark 
age, but Bellarmine reckons up between two and 
three hundred ecclesiastical writers in those days 
of darkness T many of whom were as eminent for 
their holiness and learning as the ancient writers ; 
among the rest, Simon Metaphrastes ; Hippolytus, 
©f Thebes ; Eutychius, of Egypt ; Constantius, 
son of Leo the Wise ; Flcdoardus, of Rheims ; 
Witikindus; Luithprandus, of Pavia ; Ratherius 5 
bishop of Verona: Nolherius, bishop of Liege ; 
Odo, abbot of Cluni, that celebrated nursery »£ 
learned men; CEcumenius ; Abbo ; Burchardus^ 
Lanfrid; called by Leland an illustrious Doctor^ &€* 
2 A 2 



282 HISTORY OF THE 

flourished in this age of pretended ignorance, be- 
sides many other learned doctors of the university of 
Sorbonne, founded by Charlemagne, and that of 
Oxford, founded by King Alfred the Great, in the 
year 877, upon the plan laid down and recom- 
mended to him by the holy anchoret St. Neot. It 
it is true, indeed, the study of the fine arts began to 
be generally neglected in the West, after the fall 
of the Roman Empire. With it education fell, and 
an ignorance of the belles letters ensued, and spread 
itself far and near. The learned writings of the 
ancient Romans were thrown aside, and the Latin 
tongue degenerated into diverse jargons, from which 
sprung our modern languages. However, the arts 
and sciences always found an asylum in episcopal 
houses and monasteries, from the turbulence of 
•war and rapine. Whilst men of the world were 
employed in pursuing a military life, great numbers 
of monks were occupied in transcribing the works 
of the ancients, which they had rescued from the 
hands of the barbarian invaders. These precious 
monuments of antiquity would have perished, had 
they not thus taken care to transmit them to poste- 
rity. They opened public schools in their religious 
retreats, where men of studious minds were in- 
structed and improved in times of general anarchy 
and violence. And if the true taste of literature 
did not yet flourish, at least the study of religion, 
the love of science, and a zeal for improvement did. 
Every well-informepl and ingenious mind therefore, 
instead of being prejudiced by vague and groundless 
imputations on monastic or clerical ignorance, will 
remember with gratitude, that it is to this body of 
men the world is indebted for the preservation of an- 
cient literature, and that they alone gave such cul- 
tivation to letters as the unimproved state of science 
admitted. In short, it is to them we owe the re- 
vival and return of the sciences and fine arts, as they 
rekindled the feeble sparkles which afterwards cast 
such a blaze of light all over Europe. 

Several zealous pastors, of eminent sanctity and 
learning, rose up at this time in different parts of 



CHLRCH OF CHRSIT. 2*3 

Christendom, to stem the torrent of iniquity, and 
to reform the morals of both the clergy and laity. 
They incessantly inveighed against the abuses and 
prevailing vices of the age, and preached penance 
with wonderful success. They held several synods 
in order to repair the breaches which had been 
made in ecclesiastical discipline, and to enforce the 
observance of the sacred canons of the Church. 
They corrected the ignorance, stupidity and bar- 
barism of the fiercest nations, and diffused a ra- 
tional, virtuous, and holy temper throughout the 
countries where they preached. They civilized 
and refined the minds of the most rude and wild 
people, and inspired them with the meek spirit of 
the Gospel, rendering them examples of mildness, 
patience, humility, and charity. By their apos- 
tolic labours they extended the kingdom of Jesus 
Christ in ^Muscovy, Poland, Russia, Denmark, 
Gothland, and Swedeland, The very barbarians, 
who had spread themselves over Italy, Germany, 
England, &c. became children of the Church, by 
the laver of baptism, and subjected themselves to 
the sweet yoke of the Gospel. The Normans, who 
had ravaged France for the space of seventy years, 
were converted with Roland, their Duke, and bap- 
tized, in the year 912. The Hungarians were con- 
verted in the year 1002, by the means of St. Ste- 
phen, their pious king. Thus Christ, who never 
forsakes his Church, made her triumph over scan- 
dal, immorality, and barbarism, as she had already 
triumphed over idolatry and heresy. 

The succession of saints was kept up by St. Bruno, 
archbishop of Cologne ; St. Adelbert, bishop of 
Magdeburgh ; St. Wolfang, bishop of Ratisbon ; 
St. Radbod, bishop of Utrecht ; St. Dunstan, arch- 
bishop of Canterbury ; St. Sigefride, apostle of 
Sweden ; St. Ephege, archbishop of Canterbury ; 
St. Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester ; St. Oswald, 
archbishop of York ; St. Odo, archbishop of Can- 
terbury ; St. Birnstan, bishop of Winchester ; St. 
Berno, institutor of the monks of Cluni ; St. Ge- 
rard, of Toul 5 St. Hugerus, of Hansborough $ St. 



284 HISTORY OF Tug 

Maieul and St. Odilo, abbots of Cluni ; St. Fulbert, 
of Chartres ; St. Rudefind, of Compostella ; SU 
Roniuald, founder of the Camalduienses in Italy ; 
St. Olaus, king of Norway ; St. Henry II. emperor; 
St. Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia; St. Harold VI. 
king of Denmark ; St. Niius, abbot; St Adelais ; 
St. MatiLdes ; and St. Gunegunda, who being falsely 
accused of incontinence, like the innocent Susanna, 
cleared herself by the ordeal trials, walking over 
twelve red-hot plough shares, without receiving the 
least hurt ; for ordeal trials, notwithstanding various 
prohibitions of the Church, still remained in fre- 
quent use in several places. St. Ulric, or Udalric, 
bishop of Augsburgh, flourished also in this age. 
In his last sickness he caused himself to be laid on 
ashes, blessed and strewed on the floor in the form 
of a cross, in which posture he died, amidst the 
prayers of his clergy, on the 4th of July, 973, 
after having been Bishop fifty years. His sanctity 
was attested by a number of miracles, and he is the 
first saint that was solemnly canonized by the 
Church. Benedict XIV. tells us, 1. 1. c. 7. that he 
was canonized by John XV. in the year 993, 
though Surius pretends that St. Swidbert, an Eng- 
lish monk, was canonized by Leo HI. about the 
year 800. Formerly it was usual for bishops to ca- 
nononize saints, or to declare them such, but in order 
to prevent the danger of abuses, this has been re- 
served to the mature discussion and approbation of 
the apostolic see, which never proceeds to a so- 
lemn canonization of any saints till after a most ri- 
gorous examination, and full evidence given of the 
heroic virtues which they possessed in an eminent 
degree, and of the incontestable miracles wrought 
by their intercession. This double testimony of 
heroic actions of virtue and of miracles, is required, 
before any one is enrolled among the saints. Nei- 
ther miracles suffice, without clear proofs of heroic 
sanctity, nor the latter without the former, as Be- 
nedict XIV. observes. 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 285 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

The Church of the Eleventh Century. 

THE apostolic see was filled by John XVIL 
John XVIII. Sergius IV. Benedict VIII. John XIX. 
Benedict IX. Gregory VI. Clement II. Darnasus II. 
St. Leo IX. Victor II. Stephen X, Nicholas II. 
Alexander II. St. Gregory VII. Victor III. and Ur- 
ban II. After the death of Sylvester II. John XVII. 
sat only about six months, and John XVIII. five 
years and five months : the latter died in May, 1©09. 
Sergius IV. died in August, same year. Benedict 
VI II. sat eleven years, and died on the 6th of June, 
1024. John XIX. sat nine years, and died the 8th of 
November, 1033. Benedict IX. being ejected for 
simoniacal practices, and Gregory VI. having ab- 
dicated the pontificate, Clement II. was then elected 
pope, and died on the 1st of October, 1047. Dama- 
sus II. being poisoned after a short administration, 
his successor, St. Leo IX. died in the sixth year of 
his pontificate. Victor II. died in Tuscany, in the 
year 1957. Stephen X. died on the 1st of April, 
1058. Nicholas II. died the 22d of July. 1061. 
Alexander II. governed the Church eleven years 
and six months St. Gregory VII died on the 25th 
of May, 1<;S5. in the twelfth year of his pontificate.. 
Victor III. died in 1087, and Urban II. in 1099. 

In the course of ihis century the Church had 
various trials to encounter, for as she is not here on 
earth in the place of her repose, she must expect 
to be almost always disturbed, either by heresy or 
by schisms, or by scandals, Berengarius Scholas- 
ticus of Tours, and archdeacon of Angers, espous- 
ed the errors of John Scotus Erigena, in the year 
1050, and openly preached against the mystery of 
Transubstantiation in the holy Eucharist. Lan- 
franc, archbishop of Canterbury, ascribes his fall 
to vain glory. He was a man full of self-conceit, 
and a lover of novelty. The novelty of his doc- 
trine immediately alarmed all Christendom, it being 
contrary to the constant belief of all ages. Never 



286 HISTORY OF THE 

was any heresy more universally condemned : it was 
condemned in no less than fifteen councils We 
have still extant the excellent writings of holy bi- 
shops and learned doctors, who entered the lists 
against him. Lanfranc wrote an excellent confuta- 
tion of this heresy. Guitmund, bishop of A versa, 
near Naples, published a learned work on this sub- 
ject. Alger, of Liege, wrote also an incomparable 
book on the same subject, by the reading of which 
Erasmus says, his faith of the truth of that great 
mystery, of which he never doubted, was much 
confirmed, and for this reason he strongly recom- 
mends to all sacramentarians the perusal of these 
three treatises, preferably to all the polemic writers 
of this age. St. Leo IX. condemned the new 
heresy of Berengarius, in a council assembled at 
Rome, in the year 1050; and Berengarius himself 
solemnly retracted his error, signed the retractation 
with his own hand, and having kindled a fire in the 
midst of an assembly of one hundred and thirteen 
bishops, threw into it the books which contained 
lils heresy; so that it died with him, until it was re- 
vived in the 16th century. Another storm was 
raised against the Church in the East, by Michael 
Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople, who, in 
the year 1053, renewed the schism of Photius, upon 
mere frivolous pretences, and by his artifices drew 
into it the patriarch of Antioch and Jerusalem, 
with a great part of the Greeks. St. Leo exhorted 
him to peace and union, and composed a learned 
and ample apology for the Latins. He sent Hum- 
bert, his legate, to Constantinople, to vindicate the 
Latins against the exceptions of the Orientals, and 
prove that it was to the last degree extravagant to 
pretend to ground a schism upon such exceptions ; 
but nothing was able to overcome the obstinacy and 
factious spirit of Cerularius till he died, in the year 
1058. The holy pontiff laboured strenuously in 
the West, in extirpating simony, and the incestuous 
marriages, which many noblemen had presumed to 
contract. In fine, he was indefatigable in his la- 
bours to advance the service of God and the salva- 



cnrncii OF CHRIST. 287 

lion of souls. It is recorded of him, that he was 
in Alsace, with his body marked all over with 
little red crosses, which was attributed to the in- 
tense meditations of his pious mother on the passion 
of Christ. Miracles which followed his death pro- 
claimed his glory with God. 

In this century the peace of the Church was 
greatly disturbed by a simoniacal traffic of eccle- 
siastical benefices, and many and great were the 
scandals and troubles that sprung from this shame- 
ful abuse. Several councils were held by the pas- 
tors of the dnirch for the restoration of the eccle- 
siastical discipline and the reformation of morals ; 
decrees were made, by which all p rsons that should 
be guilty of the sin of simony, were declared inca- 
pable of receiving any ecclesiastical jurisdiction, 
and disqualified for holding any benefice whatever. 
This raised great murmurs, especially in Germany, 
where Henry IV. who succeeded his pious father, 
Henry III. surnamed the Black, was fining and op- 
pressing the Church with simoniacal pastors, and 
conferring its livings on such as offered him the 
highest price. He had sucked in very early the 
corrupt maxims of tyranny and irreligion, and was 
flattered by avaricious and ambitious men, who 
found it their interest to indulge him in his passions. 
Not content with putting the bishops and abbots of 
his realm in possession of their benefices by the 
sceptre, or Regalia, according to the usual custom, 
he claimed and usurped a right of giving the inves- 
titures for cathedrals and abbeys, by the Cross and 
Ring; the sacred emblems of spiritual power, and 
he grievously abused this pretended right, by pro- 
moting to ecclesiastical dignities persons the most 
unworthy and unfit. The scandals which such si- 
moniacal proceedings caused in the Church, provok- 
ed his subjects to revolt, and ^called loudly for an 
apostolic zeal in the chief pastor ; wherefore Grego- 
ry VII. called Hildebrand^ who sat then in the chair 
of St. Peter, stood in the breach, and laboured with 
vigilance and fortitude to stem the torrent of ini- 
quity, which was breaking into the sanctuary itself. 



288 HISTORY ©F 'MlE 

He stirred up all the zealous pastors rather to la^ 
down their lives, than to be remiss in maintaining 
the laws of God and his Church. He deposed God- 
frey, archbishop of Milan, and excommunicated 
some other incorrigible sinners, who, growing des- 
perate, attempted his life. Baron Holberg, in hi$ 
abridged Universal History > (a work which is full of 
rancour, slanders, and mistakes,) most falsely ad- 
vances, that during the contest about investitures, 
Gregory exposed ecclesiastical benefices, and every 
thing that is sacred, to sale, no less than the empe- 
rors did ; whereas it is notorious, from the councils, 
epistles, and whole conduct of this pontiff, that the 
vice of Simony never had a more zealous or a more 
implacable enemy. Henry IV. finding him inflexi- 
ble, assembled at Worms, in the year 1076, a con- 
venticle of simoniacai time-serving bishops, who pre* 
sumed to depose Gregory from the pontificate, and 
whose mock sentence was sent to him, together 
with a contumelious letter. In short, such was the 
depravity and turbulence of the times, that a schism 
was raised, and an antipope was set up, by name 
Guilbert, the excommunicated archbishop of Raven- 
na, and called Clement III. whilst Henry entered 
Rome with an army, in 1Q84, and besieged Gregory 
in the castle of St. Angeio. But Robert Guiscard, 
Duke of Calabria, obliged him to retire, and the 
Tuscans gave his army a great overthrow in Lom- 
bardy. Gregory being thus rescued from his ene- 
mies, retired, for greater safety, from Rome to 
Monte Cassino, and thence to Salerno, where he 
died, with these words in his mouth : I have loved 
justice^ and have hated iniquity: therefore I die in 
a strange land. In the midst of all these troubles, 
the Church had the consolation to behold a new re- 
ligious order of the Carthusians instituted by the 
great St. Bruno of Cologne, in the year 1084, and 
edifying the world by the sweet odour of their vir- 
tues, and the sanctity of their lives. The most 
pious and learned Cardinal Bona, of whom it was 
said : 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 289 

u IL&set Pafia bonus, si Bona Pa/ia foret^ 

Bona a good and learned Pofie would be, 
Were he exalted to the Holy See. 

Speaking of the Carthusian monks, he calls them 
ci The great miracles of the world ; men living in 
(I the flesh as out of the flesh ; the angels of the 
* earth, representing John the Baptist in the wil- 
« derness; the principal ornament of the Church; 
" eagles soaring up to Heaven." Voltaire himself 
says of them : " the Carthusians entirely consecrate 
" their time to fasting, to silence, to solitude, and 
" prayer ; perfectly quiet in the midst of a tu- 
" multuous world, the noise of which scarce ev&r 
" reaches their ears ; knowing their respective 
Ci sovereigns no otherwise than by the prayers in 
*< which their names are inserted." From this 
epoch is also dated the origin of the Cistercian Or- 
der, founded by St. Robert, abbot of Molesme, who 
in the year ld98, began to build a monastery in a 
place called Cistercium, or Citeau, an uninhabited 
forest, covered with woods and brambles and water- 
ed by a little river. The Cistercian order within 
fifty years after its institution consisted of no less 
than five hundred abbeys ; which number was in- 
creased to eighteen hundred soon after the year 
1200*. The famous houses of Sept Fons and La 
Trappe are branches of this order. Some are seem- 
ingly shocked at the extraordinary austerities, which 
ihey read to have been practised by these religious 
men, and by the ancient hermits in the desert. — - 
What, say they, has the kind author of nature given 
«us an;inclination to pleasure^ and yet commanded us 
to forego it ? or does he delight in our pain ? The 
advocates of self-love, who make such objections 
to the necessity and merit of mortification, both ex- 
terior and interior, seem to be strangers to the doc- 
trine of Christ and to the examples of his apostles, 
of St. John the Baptist, of many ancient prophets^ 
and other Saints both in the New and Old Testa- 
ments, which are a standing commendation of this 
Spirit of mortification in the servants of God. A£& 
2 B 



290 HISTORY OF THE 

really to deny th^ utility and necessity of mortifica- 
tion and penance would be to destroy the whole sys- 
tem of Christian morality. Ever since the corrup- 
tion of our nature, and the revolt of our passions 
against reason, our appetites stand in need of a se- 
vere curb ; and without frequent denials and re- 
straints, self-will and the senses become headstrong 
and ungovernable, and refuse subjection. God has 
therefore appointed the mortification of the senses, 
ioined with sincere humility, and the more essential 
denial of the will, to be the powerful remedy, and a 
necessary condition for obtaining his victorious 
graces. The Gospel frequently inculcates the obliga- 
tion of it, and declares that no one can be the disciple 
of Christ, who is not crucified and dead to himself, as 
the^ram of corn must die in the ground before it can 
hring forth fruit. Though God therefore has annex- 
ed pleasure to many actions for necessary and good 
mirposes ; and though many lawful pleasures of our 
enses are allowable, and may be sanctified by a vir- 
iuous intention, yet the servants of God have in all 
3ges embraced with prudence and fervour such 
austerities us upon mature deliberation seemed to 
■hem to have the greatest tendency to facilitate the 
subjection of their passions ; they have regarded the 
practice of voluntary mortification and self-denials 
or the love of God, as helps to virtue and as means 
to acquire it, and to punish sin in themselves; not 
that they placed sanctity in them, or measured vir- 
ile thereby, as a dervise or brachman might do, 
or that they imagined God to be delighted with 
>eir pain, but with the cure of their spiritual ma- 
les, as a mother rejoices in the health of her 
Id, though not in the bitterness of the potion, 
which she gives him to procure it. Neither the re- 
luxation of discipline, nor the corruption of morals 
r was, or ever will be, so universal, but there have 
always been, and always will be in the Church, 
eminent servants of God, actuated with this heavenly 
spirit; for God's promises can no more be defeated 
\tf the human passions, than the eternal decrees of 
infinite wisdom can be obstructed by the connttttt 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. ~9x 

vices and follies of mankind. The good and the 
-wicked shall be mixed together to the ead of the 
world, " for," as St. Augustine says, " if wicked- 
" ness should ever become the universal practice of 
* mankind, how would it be true, that wheat and 
" tares shall grow together 'till the harvest, since 
" in that supposition there would be nothing but 
l< tares, and. no wheat at all H 

The succession of saints and ecclesiastical writers 
was kept up in this century by St. Peter Damian* 
bishop of Ostia, whose works are printed in three 
volumes, and by St. Ansel m, archbishop of Canter- 
bury, whose writings are published in three volumes, 
folio. His ascetic works will be an eternal monu- 
ment to show that he was one of the most eminent 
masters in the contemplative way. In his dogma- 
tical writings he adheres close to the fathers, parti- 
cularly to the great Augustine, and he is regarded 
as the first of the scholastic thoelogians, who gat ier- 
ed his doctrine into a regular system, in a clear me- 
thod and chain of close reasoning. It was rather 
his delight to be employed in the interior exercises 
of devotion, but on public occasions he was obliged 
to enter into a literary career, and take up the pen 
in defence of the Church. St. John Gualbert, 
founder of the religious order of Vallia Umbrosa, St. 
Aiiselm, bishop of Lucca ; St. Hugh, bishop of 
Grenoble; St. Hugh, Abbot of Ciuni ; St. Maca- 
rius, of Antioch ; St. Wiltstan, bishop of Worces- 
ter; St. Osmund, archbishop of Canterbury; St. 
Godard, bishop of Hildesheim ; St. Walter, abbot ; 
St. Anno, bishop of Coiogn ; St Bernard ; St. Ge- 
rard, bishop of Chonard, and apostle of a large dis- 
trict in Hungary ; St. Uifred, in Sweedeland ; St. 
Colman ; St. Ivo ; St. Edward, King and Confessor; 
St. Canutus, King of Denmark; St. Stanislaus, bi- 
shop of Cracow, in Poland ; St. Margaret, Queen 
of Scotland ; St. Emericus, Sec. adorned the Church 
in this age. Lanfranc, Guitmundus, Theophylactus, 
Adelman, Humbertus, Hugh, abbot of Cluni, Ber- 
tholdus, Bonitius, Hermannus, Albericus, Radul- 
phusj Theoduinus &c. flourished in this century* 



29$ niSTORY 0> THE 

Marianus Scotus, who is proved by Usher to have 
been a Scot from Ireland, lived at this period, and 
having founded a monastery ^at Ratisbon, taught 
both sacred and profane learning there with great 
reputation. The aforesaid Usher testifies, that the 
name of Scotia was then confined to Ireland alone,* 
the better part of North Britain being still in posses- 
sion of the Picts. Eginard, secretary to Charle- 
magne, expressly denominates Ireland Hibtrnia Sce- 
torum Insula. It was in this century that Guido, a 
great admirer of music, and a monk of Arrezzo, in 
Tuscany, in 1009, invented the Gamut , or scale of 
music, consisting of the six notes, Ut 9 re, mi, fa, sol, 
To, which syllables he took from the three first verses 
of the hymn of St. John the Baptist : Ut queant 
laxis resonare Jibris, Sec. St. Ambrose composed 
several hymns, which are still used in the divine 
office, and is said to have been the first who esta- 
blished the custom of singing hymns and psalms alter- 
nately by two choirs in the Church of Milan. He 
had learned this from the Oriental Churches, and 
from Milan the custom spread to all the Churches of 
the West. The psalms, and several sacred canticles 
in the holy scriptures, authorize and recommend this 
religious custom of employing a decent and grave 
music both instrumental and vocal in sounding forth 
the Divine praises. St. Cecily is regarded as the pa- 
troness of church music. St. Gregory the Great 
improved the plain song, which is sung in unison. 
St. John Chrysostom elegantly extols the good effects 
of sacred music. In his exposition of the 41st psalm 
he says, that the fire of divine love is kindled in the 
soul by devout psalmody. St. Augustine says, that 
it is useful in moving piously the mind and kindling 
the affections of divine love. He tells us, in the 
9th book of his confessions, c. 6. that when he was 
but lately converted to God, he was moved to shed 
abundance of tears by the sacred singing at the 
Church. Soft and effeminate music is to be always 
shunned with ab orrence, as the corrupter of the 
heart and the poison of virtue. But to sing assidu- 
ously the Divine praises on earth in a decent and 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 29t> 

grave manner, is a kind of novitiate to the state of 
the blessed in Heaven, and truly a function the most 
sweet and comfortable to a soul that loves God. By 
this homage of praise we join the heavenly spirits 
in their uninterrupted songs of adoration, love, and 
praise. 

Angels and we, assisted by this art. 
May sing together, tho y we dwell a/iart, 

Waller - 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Of the Crusades and Military Orders, 

THE Crusades, or military expeditions under the 
banner of the Cross, were undertaken about the close 
of the eleventh century, for the recovery of Palestine* 
or the Holy Land, from the oppressive yoke of the 
Mahometans. The kings and princes of Europe 
were alarmed at the rapid progress of a people 
sprung from so mean and obscure an origin. The 
eastern empire, which had stood firm for several ages 
after the downfal of the Western, was now stripped 
by them of its fairest possessions in Asia, and the 
Greek Emperor, harassed and distressed on every 
side, solicited and implored the assistance of the La- 
tins against the common enemy of Christianity. Si- 
mon, the patriarch of Jerusalem, and Peter, a fomous 
hermit of Amiens, who was, after making a pilgrim- 
age to Palestine, represented the deplorable situa- 
tion of the Christians residing there in so feeling a 
manner as to excite compassion in the breasts, and 
draw tears from the eyes of a council, that was as- 
sembled at Clermont, in the year 1095, for the pur- 
pose of taking these matters into serious considera- 
tion. Pope Urban II. was so sensibly affected, that 
he engaged the princes of France, Italy y and Germa- 
ny, to unite their forces,- and to march to the relief of 
the faithful in the Holy Land. Their first expedition 
•was successful. The army of the Crusaders or Cross 
Bearers, amounting to six hundred thousand foot, 
and one hundred th )us*tnd cavalry, under the com- 
mand of Godfrey oi Bouillon, Duke of Lorrian, ac~ 
2B % 



294 HISTORY OF THE 

companied by Hugh the Great ; Robert Duke of 
Normandy, son to William the Conqueror ; Robert 
Earl of Flanders, Sec. arrived in Bhhynia, in the year 

1097, and having vanquished the Saracens, took pos- 
session of the strong city of Nice, the royal seat and 
capital of Soliman, with one and forty other cities, 
and about two hundred towns, thirteen thousand 
Christians, and about two hundred thousand Turks, 
being slain in various engagements. In the year 

1098, the Christians took the city of Antioch, and 
the ensuing year they besieged and took Jcrusa!em f 
though it was defended by a e^rrison of forty thou- 
sand Saracens. Here they established a new king- 
dom in Palestine, of which Godfrey was unanimous- 
ly chosen the first king. Being presented with a 
gold crown, he refused to wear it, saying, that he 
never would wear a crown of gold, where the Re- 
deemer of the world had worn a crown of thorns, 
A few days after Godfrey defeated the Sultan of 
E«:ypt and the Sultan of Babylon (a city on the 
Niie, out of the ashes of which Grand Cairo rose) 
with an army of four hundred thousand foot, and 
one hundred thousand horse. The Latins having 
gained so many signal victories, established four 
principalities in the East in a short time, one at Je- 
rusalem, a second at Antioch, a third at Edessa, 
and a fourth at Tripoli. Godfrey's were dis- 
tinguished from all the rest by the good order which 
they every where observed. He began and ended 
every undertaking with the most edifying acts of de- 
votion. For a proof of his extraordinary strength 
of body, William of Tyre, a most exact and faith- 
ful historian, relates, that on the bridge of Antioch, 
he cut a Turk, who had on a coat of mail, quite 
asunder across the middle of his body with one 
stroke of his scimitar; and clove another on horse- 
back from the head downwards to the very saddle, 
wounding also the horse's back. Another time, 
seeing a bear going to kill a poor man that was 
gathering sticks, he rode up, and the furious beast 
having killed his horse, Godfrey seized him with 
his left hand, and with his right thrust his sword 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 295 

into his belly to the very hilt. During a sickness of 
five weeks he prepared himself for death, with the 
piety of a Saint, and the true fortitude of a Chris- 
tian hero, very different from that of a Pagan philo- 
sopher. He died, to the inexpressible grief of the 
Christians, in the year i ioO, aid being buried in the 
Church of Jerusalem, the following epitaph was en* 
graved on his tomb : 

Francornm Gentis Sion loca sancta Jietentis, 
Mirificum Sidus, jdux hie recubat Gothofridus, 

Here lies, from native land removed afar, 
Godfrey the Great, the shining western star. 
France boasts his birth, the Christian world his pains] 
And conquered Sion guards his last remains. 

He was succeeded by his brother Baldwin, who., 
aided by the Genoese, took Ptolemais in the year 
1104, and several other cities in i i 09. His suc- 
cessor Baldwin II. gained several advantages over 
the Saracens, but was defeated and taken prisoner 
in li20, by the Sultan Barac. He recovered his 
liberty the following year, when three thousand 
Christians routed an army of sixty thousand Sara- 
cens. The Venetians also gained two complete 
victories over the Saracen fleet, about the same time, 
and took possession of the great and strong city of 
Tyre. Barac the Turkish Sultan was conquered af- 
terwards and put to death at Aleppo, by Joscelin, and 
Baldwin reduced the city of Apamea in the year 
1126. The cities of Alexandria, Ascalon, and Da» 
mietta fell likewise into the hands of the Christians ; 
but jealousies, dissentions, and animosities arising 
amongst them, their affairs in the East took a quite 
different turn, and the Holy Land was in imminent 
danger of being re-taken by the Infidels. 

A second Crusade was therefore preached up all 
over France and Germany with such amazing suc- 
cess, that in the year 1 147 Conrad the Emperor and 
Lewis VII. surrtamed the Youngs King of France, 
marched towards Greece at the head of an army 6( 
one hundred and forty thousand cavalry, with coats 



296^ HISTORY OF THE 

of mail, exclusive of the light horse and infantry, 
which w^as almost innumerable. But the greater 
part of them perished in the deserts of Asia Minor, 
and after some unsuccessful attempts, the scattered 
remains returned to Europe. Saladin, Sultan of 
Egypt, at the head of fifty thousand Saracens, dis- 
comfited the Christian army in the year 1 187. Guy 
of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem, was then taken 
prisoner, and the Knights Templars and of St. John 
of Jerusalem were almost all cut to pieces. After 
this signal victory, nothing could stop the progress 
af Saladtn's arms, almost every city opening its gates 
to the conqueror. He laid siege to Jerusalem, and 
took it the same year, on the second of October, the 
eighty-eighth year after it had been subdued by the 
Christians. Thus what Christian charity and the 
humility of the Cross had gained, was soon lost by 
discord, pride, and ambition. Concordia res fiar- 
vx crescunt, discordia magna dilabuntur. There 
only remained now in the hands of the Latins three 
considerable cities in Palestine: Aniioch, Tyre, and 
Tripoli. 

The Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, or Rdd 
Iteard, set out for the East in 1188, but when he 
drew near Syria, going one day to swim for his di- 
version, the rapid stream carried him away in the 
current, and he was drowned, as is thought, in the 
river Cydnus, where Alexander the Great, benumb- 
ed by the coldness of the water, had like to have pe- 
rished. The news of all these sad disasters spread 
such consternation all over the West, that in the 
year 1191, a third crusade was set on foot by Rich- 
ard I. surnamed Heart of Lion, son of Henry II. 
king of England, and by Philip Augustus of France, 
who were then at war with each other, but forgot 
their particular disputes for the common good of 
Christianity. In order to shun the treachery of the 
Greeks, they embarked at Marseilles, with two pow- 
erful armies, and set sail for Palestine. When they 
arrived they captured the strong city of Acre, of" 
Aeon, on the sea coast of Palestine, anciently called 
rtolemaisy which the Christians had then been be* 



CHURCH OF ciiRiii;. 2§7 

sieging for three years under the command of Guy 
of Lusigoan, the expelled king of Jerusalem. Phi- 
lip being obliged, for the recovery of his health, to 
return to Europe, Richard staid a year longer in Pa- 
lestine. In the interim he defeated Saladin in a 
great battle, and concluded a truce with him on fa- 
vourable conditions. Before he returned home with 
his troops, he sold the island of Cyprus to Guy of 
Lusignan, whose posterity reigned there afterwards 
for the space of three hundred years. 

In the year 1195, a fourth crusade was under- 
taken by a great number of French and Italian gen- 
tlemen, assembled at Venice, under the command 
of the Marquis of Montferrat, and Baldwin, earl 
of Flanders. The republic of Venice engaged to 
supply them with ships to convey them into Pales- 
tine. It also equipped fifty galleys for the use of 
five hundred Italian nobles, who wished to embark 
©n the same expedition. When all things were in 
readiness, and the crusaders were only waiting for 
favourable weather, young Alexis, son of Isaac 
Angelus, the Emperor of Constantinople, arrived 
at Venice and solicited the aid of the Latins in 
favour of his father, who was then dethroned, and 
closely imprisoned by an usurper, who had put out 
his eyes. Alexis promised to re-establish an union 
between the Latin and Greek Church, to facilitate 
the conquest of the Holy Land, to maintain during 
his life 500 knights there for its defence, and to 
furnish the Latins with two hundred thousand marks 
of silver, and with provisions for a year. These 
offers appeared too advantageous to be rejected, 
though the minds of the crusaders were thereby 
alienated from their first plan. Instead of directing 
their course towards Palestine, they sailed for Con- 
stantinople, and upon their arrival, the usurper fled, 
and young Alexis was crowned* Emperor. But he 
was shortly after assassinated by one of his officers, 
who seized on the Imperial throne. Under these 
circumstances the crusaders held a council to deli- 
berate on what was to be done, and believing them- 
selves authorised to avenge the death of the prince 



298 HISTORY OF THE 

whom they had taken under their protection, they 
attacked the city of Constantinople, and having 
taken it on the 12th of April, i204, they abandoned 
it to the pillage of the soldiery. Vll the autho- 
rity of their leaders was not sufficient to bridle 
their licentiousness, which carried them to the 
greatest excesses. These excesses inspired the 
Greeks with such a violent aversion against the La* 
tins, that we may date from the epoch of this con- 
quest, the entire rupture and complete schism be- 
tween the Latin and Greek Church. The crusaders, 
on thus becoming masters of Constantinople, re- 
solved to establish there one from among themselves 
in quality of Emperor. The choice fell upon Bald- 
win Euri of Flanders, whose virtues were highly 
extolled even by the Greeks themselves. He was 
crowned with great solemnity in the Church of St. 
Sophia, and took the title and ornaments of the 
Emperor of the East. He reigned but one year, 
for he was taken, confined in a prison sixteen 
months, and put to death in a cruel manner by the 
King of the Bulgarians in the year 1205. His bro- 
ther Henry having succeeded him, the Latin noble- 
men entirely abandoned the expedition, for which 
they had first taken up arms, and began to extend 
their conquests in Greece, and reduced to their obe- 
dience almost all the provinces that belonged to the 
Greek Emperor in Europe. But in about fifty years 
after the conquest of the Latins, the Greeks, who 
were settled at Trebisond, Nice, and Adrianople, 
found means to recover Constantinople, and to replace 
on the Imperial throne Michael Palaeologus, of the 
family cf their ancient Emperors. 

John of Brienne landed in Egypt in the year 
1221, with an army of seventy thousand men, took 
Damietta, and besieged Grand Cairo, but lost the 
greatest part of his troops by sickness, want of pro- 
visions, and by a very high flood of the Nile. 
Frederick II. son and successor of Henry VI. in the 
Empire of Germany, sailed also with an army to 
Acre, in i 228, and made a truce with the Mahome- 
tans, for ten years, on being crowned king of JeriV 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. '299 

salem. About the year 1240, Richard) the brave 
Earl of Cornwall, brother to Henry lil- King of 
; land, arrired inPalestine withanEnglish crusade. 
St. Lewis king of France, undertook two crusades, 

one in the year 1248, and another in 1270. The 
Mariner's compass is thought to have been made 
Ube of in this crusade. St. Lewis in his first expe- 
dition having taken the Grijlamc, or royal standard, 
so called from its being of a red, or Bam* colour, 
sailed to Cyprus with a fleet of 120 great vessels, 
and 1650 small ones, carrying on board 12,800 
Fi- nch, English, and Cypriot knights, and above 
60.000 chosen soldiers- William Earl of Salisbury, 
sin named Long" Sword, brought to St. Lewis in 
Cyprius 200 gallant En gash knights. The Sultan 
of Egypt employed spies to destroy the large maga- 
zines, and to poison the victualling houses of the 
Christian arm) in Cyprus, but they were discovered 
and confessed the fact. This crusade ended in the 
taking of Damietta from the Saracens, and in the se- 
cond St. Lewis died of a dysentery. His death struck 
a damp upon the spirits of the Christians in the 
East. However, though this crusade failed of suc- 
cess, it was some check to the progress of the Sara* 
cens' arms. The Prince of Wales, afterwards 
Edward I. king of England, was the last support 
of the Christians in Palestine. Fie sailed from 
Sicily in the year 1271, and after plundering An- 
tioch, and taking Jaffa and Nazareth, was obliged 
to return in 1271, upon the death of his father, 
Henry III. The Christians were then dispossessed 
of all the places that remained in their hands in Pa- 
lestine. Damietta was destroyed by the Saracen 
army, a vast number of Christians were put to death, 
and 750 of their ships were burnt. Seventeen thou- 
sand Christians wei e killed at Antioch, and one hun- 
dred thousand were led into captivity by Bendocdar, 
the Sultan's general. 

In the years t289 and 129 1 the Sultan seized on 
Tripoli, Tyre, and Ptolemais, or Acre, where 
twenty-five thousand Christians were put to the 
sword, and twenty thousand made captives. Thus. 



&Q0 HISTORY OF THE 

in the year 1291, the kingdom of the Christians in 
Syria, was entirely overthrown. It is computed, 
that from the year 1095, when the Crusades began*, 
unto the year 1291, about two millions of Chris- 
tians perished in those expeditions, which employed 
Europe for almost two hundred years. Many things 
were great obstacles to the success of these military 
enterprises ; such as the distance of countries ; the 
difference of climates ; the excessive heats, and the 
scarcity of provisions, which occasioned malignant 
fevers, dysenteries, and pestilential diseases ; the 
repeated treacheries of the Greeks, who led the 
Latins into ambuscades ; the mixture of different 
nations ; the feudal jurisdiction in the Christian ar- 
mies ; the opposite views and clashing interests of 
particulars ; the want of military subordination and 
obedience, Sec. Some engaged not through motives 
of religion, charity, and compassion for the suffer- 
ings of their brethren in the East, but with views 
altogether worldly and selfish. Some were led by 
no other motives than the prospect of rapine and 
plunder, and they committed great disorders in their 
march. Others went merely to screen themselves 
from public justice, and from their lawful creditors 
Others were actuated by the passions of ambition, 
vanity, avarice, jealousy, anger and revenge, which 
often have a great share in wars. Such armies 
were so far from being proper instruments to avert 
the scourges of an angry God, that the disorders 
committed by them were sufficient to occasion 
the misfortunes and trials that fell on those who 
were conducted by motives of religion, charity, 
a*d penance, for the exercise of their virtue, It 
isYio wonder then that the finger of God was often 
visible in punishing and chastising the crusaders, 
since they drew the wrath of Heaven upon them- 
selves by their sin*, like unto the Children of Israel, 
who were frequently punished in the desert, and ex- 
cluded from the Land of Promise, on account of 
their manifold transgressions. Voltaire's History 
of the Crusades, is more superficial, if possible, 
than his other historical performances, in which a 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 50i 

blaze of empty wit was the author's chief aim and 
ambition. To give a satisfactory account of events, 
»>ran inquiry after truth, are seldom any part of his 
concerns, and the reflections which he intersperses 
-are frequently false, and have the most impious and 
pernicious tendency. 

The crusades gave rise to some military orders, 
the most ancient of which was that of the Knights 
Hospitalers of St. John, which subsists to this day, 
under the name of the Knights of Malta. The firs' 
house of this celebrated order was an hospital found- 
ed in Jerusalem, in the year 1098, by certain mer- 
chants of Amalphi, in the kingdom of Naples, who 
trading in the Levant, obtained leave of the caliphs. 
of the Saracens, on paying an annual tribute, to 
build a house for themselves, and for the reception 
of pilgrims who came to visit the Holy Land. 
Soon after they founded a church there, in honour 
of St. John Baptist, with an hospital for the relief 
of sick pilgrims, from which they took their 
name. In process of time they took up arms to de- 
fend the Christians from the insults of the Infidels* 
ancTto secure the passes into Palestine. They per- 
formed prodigies of valour on several occasions* 
particularly in the year 1310, at Rhode Island, 
from whence they afterwards withdrew to the island 
of Malta, the sovereignty of which was granted to 
them by the emperor Charles V. They wear for 
their bandage a cross with eight points. The Teuto- 
nic order of knights was founded after the model of 
St. John's of Jerusalem. They were to be of a 
noble race, to defend the Holy Land, and to be hos- 
pitable to German pilgrims of their own country. 
These knights behaved gallantly at the taking of 
Ptolemais, or Acre, in the year 1291. The Knights 
Templars, so called from an house given to them 
near the place where formerly stood the Temple of 
Solomon, were instituted in the year 1118, and in 
about 191 years after their establishment they were 
persecuted by king Philip the Fair, and entirely 
suppressed by Pope Clement V. in the year i312, 
The year following the Grand Master, who was a 
2 C 



302 HISTORY OF THE 

Frenchman, was burnt at Paris, and several otheps 
suffered death, though they all, with their last 
breath, protested their innocence as to the crimes 
that were laid to their charge. These were cer- 
tainly much exaggerated by their enemies, and 
doubtless many innocent men were involved with 
the guilty. A great part of their estates Was given 
to the Knights of Rhodes, or Malta, 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

The Church of the Twelfth Century. 

THE chief pastors of the Church in this age, af- 
^er the demise of Urban II. were Paschal II. who 
died in the year 1118; Gelasius II. who died in 
1119; Calixtus II. who died in 1124; Honorius 
II. who died in the sixth year of his pontificate ; 
Innocent II. who died in 1 143 ; Celestine II.| who 
died in the sixth month after his election : Lucius 

II. who governed the Church but two months: 
St. Eugenius III. a disciple of St. Bernard, who 
sat upwards of eight years; Anastasius IV. who 
died in 1154; Adrian IV. an Englishman by birth, 
who died on the i st of September, 1 159 ; Alexander 

III. who sat twenty-two years ; Lucius III. who 
died in 1185; Urban III. who died in 1187; Gre- 
gory VIII. who died on the fifty-seventh day af- 
ter his election ; Clement III. who died in the third 
year of his pontificate ; and Celestine III. who, 
though elected in the eighty-fifth year of his age, 
governed the Church near seven years, and died in 
January, i 198. 

Three general councils, viz. the ninth, tenth, and 
eleventh, were held in this century, for the refor- 
mation of manners, the suppression of schisms, and 
the extirpation of heretical errors. The ninth gen- 
eral council, being the first of Late ran, was held 
in the year 1122, under Calixtus II. and consisted 
of three hundred bishops. The tenth general coun- 
cil, being the second of Lateran, was held in the year 
H39, under Innocent II. against the schism of 



CtfURCH OF CHRIS*. 303 

Peter Leo, and was composed of a thousand bishops. 
Th^ eleventh general council, being the third of 
LateraB, was held in the year 1179, under Alex- 
ander III. against the Albigenses, who maintained 
the errors of the Manicheans, and it consisted of 
three hundred bishops, among whom were St. Lau- 
rence O'Toole, archbishop of Dublin, and the arch- 
bishop of Tuam, .with five other Irish and four 
English bishops. 

After the death of Honorius II. in the year 1130, 
an unhappy schism divided the Church : Innocent 

II. was duly chosen on the 14th of February, 1130, 
by the greater number of cardinals ; notwithstand- 
ing which a faction acknowledged Peter, the son of 
Leo, under the name of Anacletus II. Being an 
ambitious worldly man, he got all the strong holds 
about Rome into his hands, and was supported by 
Roger, duke of Sicily ; by William duke of Aquitain, 
or Guienne, which was part of Aquitain ; by the 
Milanese, Sec. Innocent II. who was a holy man, 
fled to Pisa, and from thence into France, where. 
he was recognized by king Lewis VI. su rnam.ee! 
the Big, or the Fat, and by Henry I. king of Eng- 
land. In the year 1132, the emperor Lothaire 
marched with an army to Rome, to put him in pos- 
session of the Lateran Church, and St. Bernard and 
St. Norbert laboured vigorously and successfully in 
extinguishing the schism, and in bringing over tho 
partisans of Anaclet to the union of the Church. 
Upon the demise of this antipope, one Gregory 
was set up, under the name of Victor IV. but after 
three months he surrendered his pretensions to the 
lawful Pope, Innocent. When Alexander III, a 
person eminent for his skill in theology and in the 
canon law, was duly raised to the pontificate, live 
cardinals presumed to form another schism, in fa- 
vour of Octavian, under the name of Victory V. 
and this schism was continued by three other anti- 
popes, Avho styled themselves Paschal III. Calistus 

III. Innocent III. The Emperor Frederick I. sur- 
named, from the colour of his beard and hair, JE?io- 
barbus, and by the Italians Barbavoesa, carried: 



3©4 BISTORT OF TBS 

©n an unjust quarrel with several popes' successively*, 
seizing the revenues of vacant ecclesiastical bene- 
■fices, usurping the investiture and nomination of 
bishops, and openly making a simoniacal traffic of 
all that was sacred. It is not, therefore, strange 
-that such a prince should declare himself the patron 
and protector of a schism, which had been raised 
•niy by his faction and interest in Rome. The city 
©f Milan had offended him, by claiming an exclu- 
sive right of choosing its own magistrates, and by 
acknowledging Alexander 111. for the true and right- 
ful Pope. In revenge he sat down before it with 
a great army, in 1161, and, after a siege of teu 
months, having compelled it to surrender at discre- 
tion, he razed the town, filled up the ditches, le- 
velled the walls and houses with the ground, and 
caused salt to be sown on the place, as a mark 
that this city was condemned, never more to be re- 
built. The bodies of the three kings, which he 
found there in the church of St. Eustorgius, he or- 
dered to to be removed to Cologn on this occasion. 
The Lombard cities had unanimously entered into 
a common league to rebuild Milan. When the walls 
•and moats were finished, the in habitants, with great 
joy, returned into their cily on the 27th of April, 
i 167. The emperor again marched against it, but 
was defeated by the Milanese, supported by all Italy, 
which was united against him ; wherefore he agreed 
lo hold a conference with the pope at Venice, in 
.ch he abjured the Schism, and made his peace 
-with the Church in 1177. That Alexander 111. set 
liis foot on the neck of this emperor, in the porch 
of St. Mark's church in Venice, and insulted him 
on tins occasion in these words of the Psalmist, 
Su/ier asfiidem et basiliscinn ambulabis, et conculcabis 
Uonem et draconem, Ps. 90. is a notorious forgery, 
as Baronius, Natalis Alexander, Romuald, Mat hew 
Paris, William of Tyre, Roger Hoveden, and many 
other judicious historians, demonstrate. Nor is 
the story consistent with reason, or with the singu- 
lar meekness and humanity of Alexander ; though 
tt some, modern pictures in the senate-house of 



CfiURCil OF fiHUW 

Venice, this pretended humiliation of Frederic 
with the triumph of the Lombard cities over his 
army, is exquisitely painted ; but this is no proof 
of the fact, as painters and poets are equally allow- 
ed the liberty of fictions and emblematical repre- 
sentations. 

In this century the Norwegians were finally 
brought over to Christianity by the means of Adrian 
IV. The Finlanders were converted by St. Henry, 
bishop of Upsai, and the Rhugians, who inhabited 
Pomerania, by Absolon and Berno, bishops of Ros- 
childes and Meckelburgh. The people of Cour- 
land. Samogitia, and Livonia, were likewise happily 
won over to Christ, by the preaching and apostolical 
labours of Memardus. Christian piety and religion, 
were greatly advanced by the holy order of the Cis- 
tercians, or Bernardins ; by the canons regular of 
St. Augustine; by the canons of Premontre, found- 
ed by St. Norbert in the year li20; and by the 
Trinitarians, instituted in the year 1 160, for the re- 
demption of Christian captives and prisoners made 
by the Infidels during the crusades. 
* The succession of saints was continued in the 
Church by St. Bernard; St. Norbert, archbishop 
of Mugdeburgh; St. Gaklin, archbishop of Milan; 
St. Laurence Toole, archbishop of Dublin ; St. 
Malachy, archbishop of Amiagh ; St. Malchus^ 
bishop of Lismore, reputed then, for his learning, 
the oracle of Ireland ; St. Felix Valois ; St. John 
of Matha ; St. Stephen Harding, abbot of Citeaux ; 
St. Isidore of Madrid; St. Eric, king of Sweden ;. 
St. Elizabeth; St. Hiidegardis ; St. Alberic; St. 
Robert, abbot ofc Newminsler, in England ; St. 
Hugh, bishop of Lincoln ; St. Thomas of Canter- 
bury; St. Celsus of Armagh; St. William of Mar 
leval ; St. Robert of Arbrissel ; St. Gilbert of Sem- 
bringam, founder of the Gilbertins ; St. Ubaklus, 
bishop of Gubio ; St. Godrick, and St. Ulrick, her- 
mits ; and St. Homobonus, merchant. See Div 
Alban Butler, torn. il. p. 241. 

St. Bernard w<*s the prodigy and great ornament- 
ef this age. Had Lord Bolingbroke been better ac~ • 
2 C 2 



306 ftlSTORY OF THE 

quainted with his character and writings, instead of 
displaying Ids talents in passing unjust censures, he 
would have acknowledged that the heroic sentiments 
of humility, devotion, and divine charity which all 
his works breathe, could only come from a soul full 
of the spirit of God. This holy doctor was well 
versed in the writings of the principal fathers of 
the Church, especially St. Ambrose and St. Augus- 
tine. He is reckoned among the fathers, and one 
of the most useful to those who desire to improve 
their hearts in sincere piety. His works are print- 
ed in two volumes folio, and in nine octavo. His 
letters amount to above 440, and are a lasting monu- 
ment of his learning, prudence, and indefatigable 
seal. A perfect spirit of humility reigns throughout 
all his writings, and strongly affects the hearts of 
his readers, as it is the language of his own heart* 
always glowing with ardent love and compunction. 
His confidence in God was such, that he said, " I 
CT confess myself most unworthy of the glory of hea- 
" ven, and that I can never obtain it by my own 
€i merit ; but my Lord and Saviour possesses it up- 
*' on a double title, that of natural inheritance, by 
*i being the only begotten Son of his Eternal Father 
« — and that of purchase, by having bought it with 
" his precious blood. This second title he has 
<* transferred on me, and upon this right I hope, 
** with an assured confidence, to obtain it, through 
%i his adorable passion and mercy." St. Bernard 
lays it down, as an undoubted maxim, that not to 
advance in virtue, or not to go on in a spiritual life, 
is to fall back, yet nothing is more rare than to find 
persons who always press forward. We see, says 
he, more converted from vice to virtue, than in- 
crease their fervour in virtue. He assigns two 
principal reasons : First, many who begin well, after 
some time grow again remiss in the exercises of 
Hiortifi cation and prayer, and return to the amuse- 
ments, pleasures, and vanities of a worldly life. Se- 
condly, others, who are regular and constant in ex- 
terior duties, neglect to watch over and cultivate 
tfceir interior $ so that some spiritual vice insinuates 



G'HU&CH 0F ftlllinT. 307, 

liseif into their affections, and renders them an 
abomination in the eyes of God, " A man," says the 
holy Doctor, u who gives himself up entirely to ex- 
terior exercises, without looking seriously into his 
own heart, to see what passes there, imposes upon 
himself, imagining that he is something whilst he is 
nothing. He employs his hands in fulfilling the 
precepts : he fails in no exercise of piety or pen- 
ance, com plies with his duties by habit and a cer- 
tain rotation, but he neither sees nor feels the sa- 
cred worm, which gnaws and consumes his heart. 
Whilst he strains at a gnat, he swallows a camel, and 
is in his heart a slave to self-will, a prey to avarice? 
vain glory, and ambition. One or other, or all these 
vices together, reign in his soul. In the days of St. 
Bernard, many philosophers, by pursuing the subtle 
imaginations of their own refining genius, pretended 
to give reasons for what is above reason, and fell 
thereby into many gross errors. Peter Abelard, a 
wolf in a sheep's skin, denied the Trinity with Arius, 
destroyed the Incarnation with Nestorius, and took 
away the necessity of grace with Pelagius. He was 
always unlike himself, altogether equivocal and in- 
consistent, and so vain, that, as St. Bernard says, he 
knew every thing in Heaven and Earth, but himself. 
He measured the heavens, counted the stars, and 
pretended to dive into the mysteries of faith, and se- 
crets of nature, but his science was but all folly, and 
empty vanity, because he knew not himself, and con- 
sequently had not learned the first elements of true 
wisdom. Arnold of Brescia in Italy, a scholar o£ 
Abelard, preached many errors at the head of armed 
troops. " His conversation/' says St. Bernard, " had 
" nothing but sweetness } and his doctrine nothing 
" but poison. He had the head of a dove, but the 
" tail of a scorpion." Another person of eminence, 
by deviating from the Scripture and tradition, to 
philosophize s on the mysteries of religion, adulterat- 
ed their simplicity. This was Gilbert de la Porree, 
si famous professor of theology at Poictiers, and at 
length bishop of that city, who taught that the Di- 
vine Nature is reaiJy distinguished from the three 



30 S HISTORY OF THE 

persons, and that the wisdom, justice, and other 
attributes of God, are really not God himself. St Ber- 
nard zealously entered the lists with these dangerous 
innovators, and maintained the purity of the Ca- 
tholic faith with erudition and eloquence. Besides 
the famous abbey of Clair vaux, he founded before 
his death, which happened on the 20th of August* 
1153, a hundred and forty other monasteries, which 
afterwards were increased to the number of eight 
hundred- Fleury has inserted in his history a j ur- 
nal of a great number of illustrious miracles wrought 
by St. Bernard, and attested by ten venerable and 
faithful vouchers, 1. 69, and MabiHon has proved 
their incontestible authenticity. 

The reputation of the sanctity of St. Norbert, 
founder of the Premonstratensian order, attracted 
the eyes of Europe. His whole life was a perpetual 
lent. He preached penance with amazing success, 
and wrought the conversion of numberless sinners. 
He reformed abuses, re-established ecclesiastical dis- 
cipline and inculcated, in all his sermons, the fre- 
quent use of the Blessed Sacrament of Christ's Body 
arid Blood, as , the most powerful strengthcner of our 
weakness, the sovereign remedy of our spiritual 
miseries, ar.d the source of heavenly comfort to alle- 
viate the labours and sorrows of our mortal pilgrim- 
age. Hence he is usually represented with a cibo- 
rium in his hand, to denote by this symbol his 
extraordinary devotion to the blessed Lucharist. St. 
Norbert extirpated at Antwerp the impious errors 
of Tanklin, who drew after him three thousand 
person*, that believed him to be a great prophet, 
and were ready to commit any outrages to support 
his reveries. He practised the most filthy abomina- 
tions of the Gnostics, luring the people with mag- 
nificent banquets, but in the year 1115, he met with 
the usual fate of the authors of sedition, and disturb- 
ers of the public peace. 

When St. Malachy was born, Ireland was in a 
great measure sunk into barbarism, and the face of 
the Irish CLurch was greatly disfigured, through a 
long and unavoidable intercourse between the na.~ 



C&&ZU2W •* CHRIST. 3U9 

lives and the Banish invaders. From the dissolution 
of the Irish monarchy in i022, to the entrance of 
Henry II. 1171, the nation covtinued mostly in a 
state of anarchy, a great relaxation of piety and 
morals gradually took place, and the regular suc- 
cession of bishops was interrupted in several dio- 
ceses by intruders, till the heathen barbarians were 
converted to Christianity. St. Malachy being ca- 
nonically raised to the see of Armagh, laboured 
with indefatigable zeal in abolishing all barbarous 
customs, in reforming abuses, and in banishing igno- 
rance and superstition. He softened the most savage 
hearts into humanity, and made several wise regu- 
lations in ecclesiastical discipline, and re-established 
all religious observances and practices of piety. The 
great abbey of Benchor, which lay then in a deso- 
late condition, became by his care a flourishing 
seminary of learning and piety. He died in the 
abbey of Clairvaux, in 1 148. St. Bernard wrote 
the history of his life and miracles, sung a mass of 
Requiem for his soul, made a funeral oration on the 
occasion, and another on his anniversary, which 
pieces Dom. Rivet thinks to be equal to any compo- 
sition of the kind that has appeared since the Au- 
gustan age. 

St. Laurence Toole, the son of a powerful prince 
in Leinster, was abbot of Glendaioch. After the 
death of Gregory, he was unanimously chosen to 
fill the archiepiscopal see of Dublin, lie was con- 
secrated by Gelasius archbishop of Armagh and 
successor of St. Malachy in the year 1 1 62, that is., 
three hundred and twenty-four years after the Pa- 
gans, called Ostmen or Easterlings, had taken pos- 
session of Dublin. It was in the year 1152, that 
Cardinal John Paparo, legate of Pope Eugenius III. 
conferred on this see the archiepiscopal dignity, 
having brought from Rome four palls for the four 
metropolitans of Armagh, Dublin, Cashel. and Tuam. 
St. Laurence's first care was to watch over his flock, 
to reform the manners of his clergy, and to furnish 
the altar with worthy ministers. He applied him- 
self with unwearied zeal to every part of his office^ 



31© HISTORY OF T»E 

having always before his eyes the strict account 
which he was to give to the sovereign pastor of 
souls. His cathedral was the Church of The Holy 
Trinity^ now called Christ Churchy which was built 
in the centre of the city, by Sitricus king of the 
Ostmen, and bishop Donat, in 1038, and converted 
into a dean aid chapter by Henry the VIII. in 1541. 
The other cathedral dedicated under the invocation 
of St. Patrick, was built by archbishop Comyn in 
11 90, on the same spot where an old parochial 
church had long stood, which was said to have been 
erected by St, Patrick in the fifth century. St. Lau- 
rence frequently made choice of the abbey of Glen- 
daloch for his retreats, and coming out of them he 
seemed another Moses, coming from conversing 
with God, full of a heavenly fire and divine light. 
It was in his time that Richard, Earl of Pembroke, 
commonly called Strongbow, took Dublin, sword in 
hand, and massacred a great number of the inhabit- 
ants. In this dreadful disaster the good pastor was 
employed in relieving the distressed, in imploring 
for them the compassion of the conquerors, and in 
exhorting the sufferers at least to make a good use 
of their afflictions. All found in him a father, both 
in their temporal and spiritual necessities. Every day 
he entertained at table thirty poor persons, and often 
three hundred, besides many others whom he main- 
tained in private houses, and furnished with clothes 
and other necessaries of life, especially when the 
terrible famine continued to rage for three years all 
over the country. Whatever he possessed became 
immediately the treasure of the poor, so that he 
could truly say to a friend, who in his last illness re- 
reminded him to make a will, " I thank God I have 
" not a penny left in the world to dispose of." He 
died in 1 ISO, in the monastery of regular canons at 
Eu, upon the confines of Normandy, after receiving 
the Viaticum and Extreme Unction with the mos- 
edifying piety from the hands of the abbot. The 
archbishop of Rouen and three other commissioners, 
by order oi Pope Honorius III. took juridical infor- 
mations of several miracles wrought through his in- 



CHURCH 0F CHRIST. 311 

-fcercession ; and his life, with a faithful account of 
his rigorous fasts and austerities, was authentically- 
written by a reglar canon, in Surius — Fontanr, 
£hron. Rotom. 

St. Felix, of the royal branch of Valois in France,, 
having renounced his estate, retired into an hermit- 
age, and sequestered himself from the world, forget- 
ting its shadows and appearances, which grossly im- 
pose upon its deluded votaries. There, in the calm 
and serenity of his silent retreat, he studied to puri- 
fy his heart, and live only to his Creator ; letting 
others amuse themselves with the airy bubbles of 
ambition, and enjoy the cheats of fancy and the flat- 
teries of sense, he abandoned himself to the heavenly 
delights of holy contemplation, and to the greatest 
rigours of penance, which his fervour, love, and 
compunction rendered sweeter to him than the joys 
of theatres. St. John of Mat ha, a young nobleman 
of Provence, and doctor of divinity, having heard 
much of the holy hermit, sought him out in his de- 
sert, and proposed to him a project of establishing a 
religious order for the redemption of captives, a de- 
sign with which he was inspired when he said his 
first mass. The two servants of God agreed to con- 
sult Heaven, by redoubling their fasts and prayers 
for three days, after which they resolved to beg the 
approbation of the apostolic see. Innocent III. af- 
ter many deliberations, approved this new religious 
institute, which was called of the Most Holy Trinity, 
and which was so much increased within the space 
of forty years, as to be possessed of six hundred 
monasteries. 

The principal ecclesiastical writers of this age, 
(besides St. Bernard, surnamed Melliffluus^or honey- 
flowing, on account of the fluidity and sweetness of 
his style) were Peter the Venerable^ abbot of Cluni ; 
©ratian, the compiler of the canon law, in 1 1 50 ; Ivo, 
bishop of Chartres ; Algerus Scholasticus ; John of 
Salisbury ; Perer of Blois, archdeacon of Bath ; Hil- 
debert, archbishop of Tours ; St. Hugh, bishop of 
Grenoble ; Peter Comester ; William of Malmes- 
bury ; Rupertus Abbot ; Cardinal Leo Marsicanus ; 



3f2 DISTORT OF T&E 

Nicetas ; Sigebert ; Honorius ; Cardinal Robert 
Pollein ; Enthymius ; Zigabenus ; Zonarus ; Ce- 
drenus ; Theorianus ; Hugo of St Victor, a native 
of Ypres, surnamed the Tongue of St. Augustine ; 
Richard of St. Victor, a Scotsman, and an eminent 
contemplative : Peter Lombard, a native of Novara 
in Lombardy, and archbishop of Paris, who compiled 
a body of divinity, collected from the writings of the 
holy Fathers into four books, called the Sentences^ 
from which he was surnamed the Master of the Sen- 
tences, and on which several eminent doctors have 
written commentaries, Sec. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

The Church of the Thirteenth Century. 

THE apostolic chair was filled in this age by In- 
nocent III. eighteen years and six months, by Ho- 
noiius HI. ten years and eight months, by Gregory 
IX. fourteen years and five months, and by Celes- 
tine IV. only seventeen days After a vacancy of 
near twenty months, Innocent IV. was raised to the 
pontificate, in June »243, which he held eleven years, 
live months, and fifteen days, Alexander IV. being 
then chosen, governed the Church six years and five 
months. Urban IV. sat three years and one month, 
and died in Perugia in 1264 Clement IV. sat three 
years and nine months. St. Gregory X. the arch- 
deacon of Liege, succeeded him in 127 1, after a va- 
cancy of almost three years, the cardinals not agree- 
ing in their choice, which gave occasion to the fol- 
lowing distich : 

" Pa/iatus munus tulit Archidiaconus unus, 

" Quern Patrem Patrum fecit discordiafratrum" 

After much toil^ anxiety, and care y 
A Jilain Archdeacon mounts St. Peter's chair,; 
The holy Western Pontiffs placed among ; 
So concord sweet from dire distention sjirung* 



CHURCH OF CHRIST, ^4^3 

St. Gregory dying in January, 1276, Innocent V. 
was elected, and died after the fifth month of his pon- 
tificate. Adrian V. died on the thirty-seventh day 
after his election. John XXI. died in May, 1277, 
in the eighth month of his pontificate. Nicholas 
III. died in Augusi, 1280. Martin IV. sat four 
years and one month. Honorius IV. sat two years, 
Nicholas IV. died on the 4th of April, in the begin- 
ning of the fifth year of his pontificate, that is, in 
1292, the year after Jerusalem was taken by Saladin. 
The apostolical see having remained vacant two 
years and three months, St. Peter Celestine V. was, 
out of pure regard to his eminent sanctity, unani- 
mously elected, and importuned to accept of the 
pontificate, on the 5th of July, 1294, which he abdi- 
cated on the 12th of December, the same year, with 
greater joy than the most ambitious man could 
mount the throne of the richest empire in the world. 
Cardinal Benedict Cajetan, under the name of Boni- 
face VIII. the ablest civilian and canonist of his age, 
was chosen in his place, and crowned at Rome on 
the 16th of January following. He held the potifi-' 
cate eight years, nine months, and eighteen days; 
but Rome being then torn by civil divisions, espe- 
cially by the factions of the Colonnas, he fell into 
great calamities, and received much ill treatment 
from William of Nogaret, and Philip the Fair, king 
of France, his declared enemy. 

Three general councils were held in this century. 
The fourth of Lateran of 412 bishops, and near 
80Q abbots, under Innocent III. in the year 1215. 
This was the twelfth general council. The thir- 
teenth was the first council of Lyons, which was 
celebrated there in 1245, by Innocent IV. partly 
for the purpose of procuring succours for the Cru- 
sadersj and partly to reclaim the emperor Frederic 
II. It consisted of 140 bishops besides the cardi- 
nals, patriarchs, the emperor Baldwin II. and 
the orators of other Christian princes. The 
fourteenth general council, or second of Lyons, 
was opened in the same city, on the 7th of May, 
1274, in which were assembled 500 bishops, 70 
2D 



314 HISTORY OF THE 

abbots, and 1000 other prelates. James king qf 
Arragon, with the ambassadors of several other 
princes, the patriarch of Constantinople, the me- 
tropolitan of Nice, and the grand treasurer of the 
Greek emperor, assisted, and produced the empe- 
ror's letters, with another letter written in the names 
of thirty-five Oriental archbishops and their suffra- 
gans, earnestly praying for a re-union with the 
mother Church, and styling the bishop of Rome 
the first Pontiff and the common Father of all Chris- 
tians. The emperor Michael Palaeologus had made 
proposals before to Clement IV. for a union, and 
Gregory X. resolved to pursue the business zealous- 
ly, and bring it to a happy conclusion. The city of 
Lyons was most convenient for this purpose, and 
also to concert measures for the recovery of the 
Holy Land, which Gregory promoted with all his 
anight. It was also the most unexceptionable place 
for the meeting of those princes whose succours 
were principally expected, because at that time it 
was subject to its own archbishop, though held in 
lief of the emperor. The Pope himself presided 
at this council, and the Logothete, or chancellor of 
Constantinople, adjured the schism in the name of 
the emperor and the nation, accepted the profession 
of faith of the church of Rome, and confessed the 
supremacy and primacy of the holy see. In thanks- 
giving the Pope sung Mass, and the Te Dcum on the 
least of SS. Peter and Paul, in the cathedral of S:. 
John, with his cheeks all the time bathed in tears. 
The Gospel was sung first in Latin, then in Greek, 
and a sermon was preached by St. Bonaventure en 
the unity of faith. Then the Creed was sung also 
in Latin and in Greek, and as a seal of the re-union 
of the two churches, these words were thrice re- 
peated : Who proceeded from the Father and the Son. 
The council was closed by the fifth and last session 
on the 17th of July ; and in memory hereof two 
crosses are placed on the high altar of the Metro- 
politan church at Lyons. Every thing then appa- 
rently promised a durable union j but, alas ! after a 



CHURCH OF CHRIST- »8U 

short sun-shine of peace, the Greeks relapsed as 
usual, and the schism was renewed nine years after 
by the emperor Andronicus. A violent storm was 
also raised in this age against the Church by the 
new Manichcans and Cathariy a sect of men whose 
principles and practice were inimical to public 
peace, and tended to the destruction of the laws of 
civil society and Christian morals. The Mani- 
cheans had been troublesome from time to time for 
near a thousand years, but never were so numerous 
or so powerful as in this century, particularly in 
the southern parts of France, where they were 
called Albigccis or Albigenses, from the city of Alby. 
Being favoured by Raymond, Count of Toulouse, 
and by some other neighbouring princes, they com- 
mitted great outrages in Languedoc, expelled the. 
bishops from their sees, burnt churches, demolished 
monasteries, and even entered the field in armed 
troops to the amount of a hundred thousand men. 
But their reign was short, for their numerous forces 
were routed at Muret, a small town on the Garonne, 
near Toulouse, by Simon of Montfort, earl of Leices- 
ter, at the head of only a thousand men. In the 
year 1209 they fortified themselves at Beziers, but 
the town being besieged and taken by assault, the 
inhabitants were barbarously put to death, to the 
number of fifteen thousand. The inhumanity of 
this action is not to be palliated, nor can the cruelties 
and injustices that were exercised on this occasion 
be justified on any principle. Those, indeed, who 
disturb the public peace, and set up the standard 
of rebellion and persecution against ail laws and 
authority, are to be restrained by lawful authority 
from doing acts of violence and hurting others, but 
crimes and seditions are not to be punished or re- 
venged by other crimes, nor are avarice and am- 
bition to cover themselves under the cloak of zeal 
for religion. 

France was also infested about this time with an- 
other sect, which was that of the Waldenses, or 
Poor Men of Lyons, who took their origin from Pe- 
ter Waldo, a merchant of that city, and broached 



3-13 HISTOKY OF THE 

various errors. They commenced preachers with* 
out any license or commission, and when they were 
opposed by the pastors of the Church they wanted 
humility, and said, the clergy condemned them be- 
cause they envied their sanctity and morals. Such 
are the baneful fruits and blindness of pride and 
self-conceit. The Petro-Brusians, who took their 
name from Peter Bruys, a native of Dauphine, 
disturbed the peace of the Church in like manner, 
and began to propagate their pernicious tenets at 
this period, covering the most wicked actions and 
corrupt morals under an hypocritical garb. In op- 
position to all these heresies, Divine Providence 
was pleased to raise a number of apostolic men and 
eminent saints, who maintained the purity of faith, 
and promoted true piety and devotion, by the light 
of their doctrine and shining virtues. St. Dominick 
and St. Francis of Assisium founded two religious 
orders, which were solemnly approved and confirm- 
ed in 1216 and 1223, by the authority of Honorius 
II. who also confirmed the holy order of the Car- 
pielites in 1226. The religious order of Hermits, 
founded by St. Augustine, near the city of Tagaste, 
in the year 388, was transferred by Innocent IV. in 
the year 1243, from their hermitages into cities and 
towns, for the edification of the faithful : and their 
union into one great body, under one general supe- 
rior, was approved and ratified by Alexander IV. in 
1257. A new religious order for the redemption of 
captives, was approved by Gregory IX. in the year 
1235. It was founded by St. Peter Nolasco, a native 
of Languedoc, who being sent by Count Simon, of 
Montfort, into Spain, with the young prince James of 
Arragon (whose father had been defeated and killed 
among the Albigenses, in the battle of Muret) led 
the life of a recluse, and practised the austerities of 
a cloister in the midst of the royal court at Barce- 
lona, where the kings of Arragon then chiefly resid- 
ed. Charity and compassion for the poor had always 
been a distinguishing feature in the character of St. 
Peter, so that he might say with holy Job, that mer- 
cy and compassion for his neighbour in distress had 



CHt-RCH OF CHRIST. 317 

grown ufi with him from his childhood. He saw al- 
most under his eyes the sufferings of the Christians, 
who were detained in bondage among the Infidels, 
and his tender heart was particularly afflicted hereat; 
for the Moors at that time being possessed of a con- 
siderable part of Spain, great numbers of Christians 
groaned under their tyranny in a miserable slavery, 
both there and in Africa. The sight of so many- 
moving objects in captivity, and the consideration of 
their corporeal sufferings, and much more so of the 
spiritual dangers to which their immortal souls were 
exposed, under their Mahometan masters, made him 
feel by compassion the weight of all their chains, and 
spend his whole estate in ransoming as many as he 
could. By his discourses he moved the king and se- 
veral others to contribute large alms toward this 
charity, and at last formed a project of instituting a 
religious order, for a constant supply of men and 
means, whereby to carry on his laudable undertaking. 
St. Raymund of Pennafort, who was descended from 
the counts of Barcelona, and nearly allied to the 
kings of Arragon, concerted with him the founda- 
tion of this new order, and drew up for it certain 
rules and constitutions. It was this saint who col- 
lected into one body ail the scattered decrees of popes 
and councils, since the collection made by Gratian. 
It is looked upon as the best finished part of the bo- 
dy of the canon law, and is compiled in five books, 
commonly called the Decretals, The incredible num- 
ber cf conversions, of which these Saints were the 
instruments, is known only to Him, who, by his grace, 
was the author of them. The kingdom of Valentia 
was the first place that was blessed with the labours 
of St. Peter ; the second was that of Granada and the 
coasts of Spain and Algiers, where, after undergoing 
great hardships and sufferings, he induced many of 
ihe Mahometans to embrace the faith of Christ. Si. 
Raymund applied himself to the exercises and func- 
tions of an apostolic life, especially the conversion of 
the Saracens, ten thousand of whom received bap- 
tism in the year 1256. St. Peter died on Christmas- 
day, in 1 25 6 ; in the 67ih vear of his age, and St. Ray- 
2D2 



3 IS HISXGIIY OF THE 

raund on the 6th of January, 1275, in the 100th year 
of his age. They were both honoured by many mi- 
racles : Bollandus has filled fifteen pages in folio 
with an account of them. 

St. Raymond, surnamed Non-natus, or Unborn^ be- 
cause, like unto Scipio Africanus, and, according to 
some authors, Julius Caesar, he was taken out of the 
body of his mother after her death, by the Cesarean 
operation, in the year 1204, succeeded St. Peter No- 
lasco, at Barcelona, in the charitable office of Ran- 
somer of Captives. Being sent into Barbary, he pur- 
chased the liberty of a greater number of slaves ; and 
when all his treasure was laid out in that charitable 
way, he made a magnanimous sacrifice of his own 
libertyi and voluntarily gave himself up as a hostage 
for the ransom and salvation of others, who were in 
imminent danger of sinking under their calamities, 
and losing their immortal souls by impatience o? 
apostacy from Christ. 

St. Philip Beniti, a native of Florence, was in 
this age a great ornament of the Church, and ft 
principal propagator of the religious order of the 
scrvites in Italy. When, upon the death of Cle- 
ment IV. the cardinals assembled at Viterbo began, 
to cast their eyes on him to raise him to the apostolic 
chair, having got intelligence of their design, he 
retired into the mountains, and lay concealed there 
till Gregory X. was chosen. All this time he re- 
doubled the macerations of his body, and gave him- 
self up to the sweet exercise of heavenly contem- 
plation, living chiefly on dry herbs, and drinking at 
a fountain, since called St. Philip's Bath. He re- 
turned from the desert, glowing with holy zeal, to 
labour for the conversion of sinners, and to kindle 
in the hearts of Christians the fire of divine love. 
Italy was at that time horribly divided by intestine 
discords and hereditary factions, particularly those 
cf the Guclphs, who adhered to the popes, and th e 
Ghibeliins, or imperialists, who were partizans o* 
the emperors in their contests about investitures? 
&x. These factions subsisted in Germany for above 
an hundred years, but in Italy almost four hundred, 



CHURCH OP CHRIST. 319 

they not being quite extinct there before the reign 
of Charles V. St. Philip Beniti, and several other 
holy men, endeavoured to supply suitable remedies 
to these quarrels, and wonderfully pacified the 
people at Pistoia, Forli, and many other places, 
where they were ready to tear each other to pieces, 
but the discords, like a wound ill cured, broke out 
again with worse symptoms than ever. 

The renowned St. Thomas of Aquino, styled the 
Jngelic Doctor^ flourished in this age. He perform- 
ed his studies at Cologne and Paris, under the tuition 
(A Albertus Magnus. His profound humility made 
him conceal the amazing progress he made therein 
from his school-fellows, who, on account of his 
modesty and silence, called him the Dumb Ox^ but 
the brightness of his genius, and his quick and deep 
penetration, were soon discovered by his master, 
Albertus, who not able to contain his joy and ad- 
miration, said, " We call him the dumb ox, but he 
u will give such a bellow in learning, as will be 
u heard all over the world." This applause made 
no impression on the humble Thomas, because his 
heart was full of nothing but of God, and his own 
insufficiency. In the year 1248, being twenty-two 
years of age, he began to publish his first works, 
which consisted of comments on the ethics and 
otter philosophical works of Aristotle. The Albi- 
genses and Saracens in Arabia and Spain, made 
then a bad use of Aristotle's philosophy, and wrote 
with incredible subtilty on his principles, particu- 
larly Avicenna and Averroes, the Arabian philo- 
sophers. St. Thomas, though he had only a bad 
translation of the works of that philosopher, op- 
posed the enemies of truth with their own weapons^ 
and employed the philosophy of Aristotle in defence 
of the faith, and made it subservient to divine reve- 
lation. He discerned and confuted his errors, and 
set in a clear and new light the great truths of rea- 
son, which that philosopher had often wrapt up in 
obscurity. Thus Aristotle, who had been called 
the terror of Christians, in the hands of Thomas 
became orthodox, and furnished religion with new 



320 HISTORY OF THE 

arms against Idolatry and Atheism. His writings 
are original efforts of genius and reflection, and 
every point he handles in a manner that makes it 
appear new. If his speculations are sometimes 
spun fine, and his divisions run to niceties, this was 
owing to the custom of the age in which he lived, 
and to the speculative refining geniuses of the Ara- 
bians, whom he had undertaken to pursue and con- 
fute throughout their whole subtle system. St. 
Thomas penetrated the most knotty difficulties in all 
the sciences, whether sacred or profane, to which 
he applied himself, not out of a vain passion, or 
the desire of applause, but for the advancement of 
God's honour and the interest of religion. In ob- 
scure and difficult points, he redoubled with more 
earnestness his fervour in his prayers than his ap- 
plication to study, which he found attended with 
such success, that he was accustomed to say, that 
he learned more before his crucifix, and at the foot 
of the altar, than in books. His works are printed 
in ten volumes, folio, and are partly philosophical, 
partly theological, with comments on the holy 
Scriptures, and several treatises of piety, wherein. 
he reduces the rules of an interior life to these two 
Gospel maxims: first, that we must strenuously la- 
bour, by self- denial and mortification, to extinguish 
in our hearts all the sparks of pride, and the inor- 
dinate love of creatures ; secondly, that by assidu- 
ous prayer, meditation, and doing the will of God 
In all things, we must kindle his perfect love in our 
souls. — Opusc. 17 and 18. The fruits of his 
preaching were no less wonderful than those of his 
pen : He was heard at Cologne, Paris, Rome, and 
in other cities as an angel. Even the Jews ran of 
their own accord to hear his sermons, and many of 
them were converted. His devotion to the blessed 
sacrament was extraordinary, and in saying mass he 
seemed to be in raptures, often quite dissolved in 
tears, and melting with love in contemplation of the 
immense charity of Jesus Christ. He died on the 
7th of March, 1274. The Bollandists give a long 
authentic account of various miracles wrought 



CTtURCH OF CHRIST. ?.2l 

through his intercession and by his relics, which 
were deposited in Toulouse with great honour. 

St. Bonaventure, cardinal and bishop of Albano, 
surnamed the Seraphic Doctor* for his extraordinary, 
devotion, ardent charity, and eminent skill in sacred 
learning, was a contemporary of St. Thomas, and 
died the same year, on the 15th of July, in the 53d 
year of his age. The celebrated Gerson, the most 
learned and devout chancellor of Paris, calls St. 
Bonaventure both a Cherub and a Serafi/i, because his 
writings both enlighten the understanding and in* 
flame the heart of the reader. The acts of his ca- 
nonization record several approved miracles wrought 
by his intercession. 

St. Anthony of Padua, so called from his long re- 
sidence in that city, though he was a native of Lis- 
bon in Portugal, adorned the Church of this century 
by his learning and shining virtues. After teaching 
divinity with great applause at Bologna, Toulouse, 
Montpellier, and Padua, he at length forsook the 
schools to apply himself wholly to the functions of a 
missionary preacher; for he thought the conversion 
of souls from vice, and the reformation of manners, 
called for his whole attention and zeal, and he seem- 
ed formed, both by the gifts of nature and grace, 
for this most important office. Being perfectly 
versed in the Scriptures, he displayed in a clear 
light, and with inexpressible energy, the genuine 
sense, and the spirit and marrow of the sacred text. 
He opposed the fashionable vices with vigour and 
success in France, Spain, and Italy, and he spoke 
with such unction and energy, that his eloquence, like 
a torrent of fire, bore down all before him, and his 
words were so many darts, which pierced the hearts 
of his hearers, for he had long treasured up in his 
own heart the most feeling sentiments of every 
virtue, and Ins soul was all flame, before he en- 
deavoured to kindle the fire of divine love in others. 
He was no less admirable in the private direction of 
souls than in the pulpit. Wherever he came, dis- 
sentions and animosities were extinguished, usurers 
restored the unjust gainsj and sinners threw them* 



525 HISTORY OF THE 

&elves at his feet, melted into tears. The sanctity 
and austerity of his life added such weight to his 
words, that he seemed to preach by every action. — » 
He gave up his happy soul to Him who had created 
it for his own great glory, on the 13th of June, 1231, 
being 36 years old. At the first news of his depart- 
ure, the children ran about the streets, crying out, 
" the saint is dead." His sanctity was testified by 
many illustrious miracles, recorded by Papebroke 
the Bollandist. — T. 2 Jun. p. 713. 

St. Hyacinth of Poland, called the Apostle of the 
North, lived about this time. He was a professed 
enemy of idleness, which he knew to be the bane 
of all virtues. Every hour of the day had its em- 
ployment allotted to it, but prayer was, as it were, 
the seasoning both of his sacred studies and of all 
his other actions. His zeal was too active for him 
to allow himself any rest, whilst he saw souls perish- 
ing eternally in the ignorance of the true God. A 
tender compassion for sinners moved him to carry 
the Gospel into the vast and savage countries of the 
North. After he had preached his first sermons 
with great success at Cracow in Silesia (a province 
Uien united to Poland,) and in the principal cities 
of Prussia, Pomerania, Denmark, Sweden, Gothia, 
and Norway, in all which countries there slili re- 
mained many idolaters, he travelled into Lesser 
Russia, and penetrated as far as the Black Sea, and 
into the isles of the Archipelago. Long and dan- 
gerous journies over rocks, precipices, and deserts, 
were not able to abate his ardour, or discourage his 
heroic soul, which delighted in labouring for the 
glory of God, and could think nothing difficult that 
was undertaken for so great an end. Returning to- 
wards the North, he entered Muscovy, called also 
Great Russia, and he no sooner began to 4 announce 
the Gospel, confirming his doctrine by miracles, 
but the Mahometans, Heathens, and Greek^schisma- 
tics flocked to hear him in great multitudes, and be- 
came docile to the truth. Having returned to Cra- 
cow in the year 123 l, his ardour to gain souls to 
Christ made him afterward undertake a voyage to 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. S23 

Comania on the Danube, and penetrate into Great 
Tartary, into Thibet near the East Indies, and into 
Catay, the most northern province of China. By 
means of his apostolic labour, several thousands of 
these barbarians received the Sacrament ofBuptism, 
and among them a prince of the Tartars, who went 
with several lords of his nation to the first General 
Council of Lateran, in 1245. St. Hyacinth, after 
having travelled above four thousand leagues, ar- 
rived in Cracow in the year 1257, which was the 
seventy-second and last of his life. His sanctity 
was attested by an amazing number of miracles, 
with the history of which the Bollandists have filled 
thirty-five pages in folio. They have also filled 
twenty-two pages in folio with the history of the 
miracles of St. Peter of Verona, who, after con- 
verting a multitude of sinners, and Manicheans in 
Tuscany, Bologna, Ancona and the Milanese, was 
martyred on his return from Como to Milan, the 
6th of April, in the year 1252, by Carinus, an assas- 
sin, who was hired by the Cathari to lie in ambush, 
and murder him on the road. 

The succession of saints was still kept up by St, 
John of Mantua ; St. Peregrinus Latiozi, who con- 
tinued during penance in sackcloth and ashes to the 
80th year of his age ; St. Edmund, archbishop of 
Santerbury ; St. Richard, bishop of Shichester ; 
St. William, archbishop of York ; St. Lewis, bishop 
of Toulouse ; St. Simon Stock ; St. Sylvester, ab- 
bot of Osimo; St. Raynerius ; St. Lewis IX. king 
fcf France, with his only sister St. Isabella ; Su 
Hedwigis, queen of Poland ; St. Clare ; St. Eliza- 
beth ; St. Gertrude ; St. Juliana ; and St. Mar- 
garet of Cortona, &c. These great servants of God 
had that fundamental maxim of virtue always be- 
fore their eyes, that even devotion, infected with 
self-will and humour, becomes vicious, and nourishes 
self-love and self-conceit, the bane of all virtue, and 
the chief enemy of the love of God. It is from the 
poisonous root of self-love that all our vices and 
passions spring, and the seven capital sins are but so 
maqy branches of iu Take away self-love, and 



S24 HISTORY OP THE 

you will shut up all the avenues of hell. It is the 
indispensable duty of every Christian t6 combat and 
counteract this dreadful evil, by the opposite virtue 
of self-denial, in spite of all the refined persuasions 
of a deluded conscience, and all the specious argu- 
ments that are drawn from the artifices and sug- 
gestions of self-love itself, since the Gospel requires 
self-denial as a preliminary condition, and the first 
step necessary to become a disciple of Christ. If 
any one will come after me, let him deny himself &c. 
Matthew 16. 24. 

Several academies were instituted in this age for 
the cultivation of letters, one at Salamanca in the 
beginning of this century, one at Patavium, in the 
year 1222, one at Toulouse in 1233, one at Naples 
in 1239, one in Sweden in 1240, one in Cambridge 
in 1280, one at Montpelier in 1289, and one at 
Lisbon in 1290. Academical degrees were intro- 
duced for the purpose of licensing persons to teach 
in public. In conferring the degree of Doctor^ or 
Master* a Bacillus, or wand, was delivered, whence 
comes the name of Baccalaurcus^ or Batchelor. The 
chief ecclesiastical writers of this century were, 
among others, Innocent III. eminent botli for his 
literary and apostolical labours ; Alexander of Hales 
^Gloucestershire, surnamed the Irrefragable Doc tor; 
jEgidius Romanus, styled Doctor Fundatisaimus ; 
Albertus Magnus, whose works are published in 
twenty-one large volumes ; Augustinus Trium- 
phans ; Ulric of Argentina ; Alanus, a Cistercian 
monk, called the Universal Doctor ; Cardinal James 
of Vitri ; Henricus Gandavensis ; Rodericus Xime- 
nius, archbishop of Toledo ; Roger Bacon, called 
Doctor Mirabilis ; Joachimus, abbot ; Helinandus ; 
Humbert ; Hugo de Sancto Caro ; Vincent of Beau- 
vais ; Robert Sorbon ; Thomas Cantipratensis ; Ro- 
bert Grotest ; William the Wise and Pious, bishop 
of Paris, who exceedingly promoted the studies in 
that university, so that there were then more students 
than citizens in Paris. The works of this illustrious 
prelate have been re-printed several times, and are 
standing monuments of his great piety and con- 



eiitilCH OF CHRIST. 325 

summate erudition. If we follow the history of the 
Church through every age with attention, we shall 
find that the Providence of God has always taken 
care to raise up such men from time to time for the 
defence of the Walls of Jerusalem, and to fill them 
with his holy spirit, that they might repel all the 
assaults of the powers of darkness, and support the 
faith in its primitive purity, by their writings, their 
miracles, and saint-like lives. This has been the 
case hitherto, and this will be the case to the end 
of time. The promises made to the Church are 
eternal, and will continue to be accomplished in 
all succeeding ages. The victories she has here- 
tofore gained over idolatry, heresies, and scandals, 
are a sure proof and guarantee of the victories she is 
to gain in future. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

The Church of the Fourteenth Century. 

THE pontifical chair was filled in this age by 
Benedict XI. who, after the demise of Boniface 

VIII. on the 11th of October, 1303, was una- 
nimously elected Pope on the 22d of the same 
month/but sat only eight months and seventeen days. 
His successor Clement V. sat about nine years, and 
died near Avignon on the 20th of April, 1314. 
After a long vacancy John XXII. was elected on 
the 7th of August, 1316, and sat eighteen years. 
Benedict XII. succeeded him, and died in the eighth 
year of his pontificate. After him Clement VI. sat 
ten years and about nine months. Innocent VI., 
was elected on the 18th of December, 1352, andl 
sat till the 12th of September, 1362. He was suc- 
ceeded by Urban V. who sat eight years and near 
two months. Gregory XI sat seven years and 
three months, and died in Rome on the 2Tth of 
March, 13"8. Urban VI. was chosen on the 9th 
of April the same year, and died on the 15th of 
October, 1389. He was succeeded by Boniface 

IX. who governed the Church till the 1st of Octo- 
ber, 1403. 2 E 



326 HISTORY OF THE 

The fifteenth General Council was held in the 
year 1310, at Vienne in France, under Clement V. 
it consisted of three hundred bishops, and a great 
number of other prelates of distinguished abilities 
and merit, perfectly acquainted with ecclesiastical 
discipline and sacred antiquity. This council sup- 
pressed the order of Knights Templars, and con- 
demned the Fratricelli, who made all perfection to 
consist in a seeming poverty. The impure heresies 
of the Be guards, Lolhards, Beguines and Turlufiini^ 
with the errors of the Flagallantes, who placed pe- 
nance entirely in the exterior practice of disci/i lining, 
or flagellation, and other fanatics who made their 
appearance about this time, were also condemned. 
The peace of the Church was disturbed in this age 
>y the great schism that began in the West, and was 
occasioned by the election of Clement V. who being 
a Frenchman, fixed his residence at Avignon, where 
his successors continued for a considerable time. 
Antipopes were set up by the contending parties, 
and the schism was not entirely extinguished till af- 
cr the Council of Constance. 

The succession of saints was kept up by St. An- 
drew Corsini, bishop of Fiosela ; St. John Col urn- 
bini, founder of the Jesuati : St. Yvo, a priest of 
little Britain ; St. Roch of Motpellier ; St. John of 
Burlington ; St. Peter of Luxemburg, bishop of 
?>Ientz ; St. John Nepomucen, martyr ; St. Elzear, 
and his holy spouse St. Delphina, who were a noble 
pattern for heads of families ; St. Catherine of Sien- 
na; St. Clare of Monte Falco near Spoleto ; St. 
Klizabeth, queen of Portugal ; St. Catherine of 
Sweden ; St. Agnes of Monte Pulciano, Sec. See 
Br. Alb. Butler, torn. 9. p. 329. and torn. 5. p. 217. 
The great St. Nicholas of Tolentin, died about the 
beginning of this century, on the I Oth of Septem- 
ber, 1306, in the sixty-first year of his age. He 
was a prodigy of penance and mortification ; his 
ordinary food was coarse bread with pulse or herbs; 
his bed was the bare floor, with a stone for his pillow. 
The disciplines and iron girdles with which he 
afflicted his body are shown to this day in Tolentin, 
c his sacred relics are deposited in a stately 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 327 

basilic. Eu genius TV. who canonized him in the 
year 1446, styled him Thaumaturgus, and declared 
that no saint since the days of the Apostles adorned 
the Church with more miracles. The bull of his 
canonization alone relates upwards of three hun- 
dred renowned miracles, strictly examined and juri- 
dically proved by the solemn testimonies of three 
hundred and seventy-one witnesses, among whom 
were different persons who had been raised to life by 
his intercession. These and sugIi like miracles are 
not however proposed as parts of Divine revelation, 
or articles of faith, to be equally assented to with 
the miracles that are recorded in the holy scriptures, 
but they rest upon their bare historical authority, 
and deserve at least the same prudent assent, human 
belief, and credit, that is given to other facts, at- 
tested by great numbers of eye-witnesses, examined 
by authority, and found upon record, or related upon 
good grounds in profane history. Nothing can be more 
unjust than to charge the Church with patronizing 
forgeries, or countenancing false legends. So far 
from this, that she condemns all kinds of forgeries 
relating to religion, as lies of the most criminal and 
the most heinous nature, and that her councils and 
bishops have been always most severe in detecting 
and punishing them. See the decrees of the fourth 
council of Lateran, and of the council of Trent 
against counterfeit miracles and relics. Yet a little 
incredulity, accompanied with a presumption of 
measuring God's works by the short line of human 
wisdom, will make the best attested miracles pass 
for forgeries and absurd impossibilities. Is not 
every thing ridiculous and absurd to unbelievers ? Is 
not the whole doctrine of Christ a scandal to the 
Jews, and a folly to the Gentiles? Take away faith, 
and see what will become of the miracles recounted 
in the Old and New Testament, where we read that 
God, for the manifestation of his glory and good- 
ness, has been pleased to favour many of his ser- 
vants with the gift of miracles, and where Christ our 
Lord has promised that his disciples should work 
greater miracles than himself had wrought ; that" 



Z2$ HISTORY OF TffE 

in his name they should east out devils, and heal alt 
kind of disorder's : See an excellent treatise of Dr. 
Hays, On Miracles, printed in the year 1789. 

This century was auspicious to the cultivation of 
letters. The hard servitude of the people under 
their immediate Lords, who were a kind of subal- 
tern sovereigns in their own estates, with many se- 
vere customs concerning vassalages being abolished 
in France and some other countries, studies began 
to flourish exceedingly, and great encouragement 
&nd protection were held out by many zealous pa- 
trons cf the sciences. The depravation of taste 
r.nder the decline of the Roman Empire had begun, 
and the inundations of the barbarians completed 
the fall of the polite arts in the West. However, 
the sciences cf faith and piety never languished in 
the Church of Christ. Sacred learning was always 
cultivated, even in what are called the dark ages. 
The study of the Holy Scriptures w^as never neg- 
lected. They were carefully delivered down, and 
ately corrected from the Hebrew under Charle- 
b, and under S:. Lewis, with learned notes 
the Hebrew, 70, Origen, St. Jerom, Sec, long 
e the revival of the belles lettrcs and the in- 
. n of the art of printing. All the great mo- 
iies had public libraries and Scri/itoriumij 
ere numbers cf religious men were employed in 
:opying and transcribing books, at the hours al- 
lotted to manual labour. £ or Scholastics, 
vere established in Cathedrals, and great care was 
taken by the Clergy to presei re ancient 
literature. The very names of Lan franc, St. Ste- 
\ abbot of Citeau, Raymond Mar- 
Nicholap of Lyra, Pcrket Salvago, a Carthu- 
h of Genoa, Paul of Burgos, Austin Justi- 
niani, Houbigand, a French oratorian, &c. ought 
alone to stop the mouth of slander. Who was it that 
transplanted and revived the Greek language and 
authors, and with them all polite arts and Literature 
in the West? says the elegant Protestant author of 
the Minute Phifo*Gflher s Dial. 5. n. 25. T. 1. p. 324. 
Was it not chiefly Bessarion, a Cardinal, Marcus 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. S2ST 

Masurus, an archbishop, Theodore Gaza, a private 
clergyman ? Has there been a greater and more 
renowned patron and restorer of elegant studies in 
every kind since the days of Augustus Caesar, than 
Leo X. Pope of Rome ? Did any writers approach 
the purity of the classics nearer than the Cardinals 
Bembus and Sadoletus, or than the bishops Jovius 
and Vida ? not to mention an endless number of 
Cistercians, French Benedictines, and other learned 
ecclesiastics, who have eminently excelled in all the 
branches of polite literature. Several universities 
were founded in this century: One at Avignon, in 
the ye;r 1303, another at Orleans, in 1305, another 
in Dublin, in 132&, another at Pisa,in 1339, another 
at Angers? in 1346, another at Heidelberg, tl 
year, another at Prague, in 135$, another art 
in t347, another al Geneva, in 1365, anothSf^at 
Vienna, about the year 139U r another at Sienna, in 
1387, and another at Cologne, in 1388. 

The most celebrated writers of this century were 
John Duns Scotus, who died at Cologne in i 308 j 
Augustine of Ancona ; William Oekam, a native 
of Surry in England, and head of the Nominal pM«? 
losophers, who, in opposition to the Realists, main- 
tain, that words, not thing3, are the objects of dia- 
lectic ; John Bacon; Petrus Aureolus ; Nicoiaus 
Lyranus ; Gregory of Ariminum; Thomas de Ar- 
gentina; Jacobus Viterbiensis ; Alphoiisus V&rg&s £ 
Pelagius Alvarus ; Durandus, a Sane to "Portiaio £ 
Hervaeus ; Francis Mayro ; Monaldus ; Petrus- Pa- 
ludanns; Guido Carmelita: Ludolphus Carthusia- 
nus ; John of Burlington ; Richard of Ham pole £ 
Simon de Cassia ; John Taulerus ; John Rusbro- 
chius ; Antonius Arragoiuus ; Thomas Braduardi- 
nus ; Alexander de Sancto Epidio ; Jacobus Tolo~ 
sanus ; Jordon of Saxony ; tienry Suso, the author 
of several pious tracts, &c. Lithuania was gamed 
over to the Church of this century, by the conver- 
sion of the grand duke, Wladislaus, and his people^ 
2 E 2 



' HISTORY OF THE 

CHAPTER XXXir. 

The Church of the Fifteenth Century. 

THE Apostolic chair was filled in this age by 
Innocent VII. from the 17th of October, 1104, till 
the 6th of November, 1406. Gregory XII. suc- 
ceeded him, on the 20th of the same month and 
year, was deposed on the 26th of June, 1409, and 
died at Recanati in 1417. Alexander V. sat from 
June, 1409, till the 3d of May, UlO. John XXIII. 
being elected at Bologna, on the 17th of the same 
month and year, was deposed on the 29th of May, 
1415, and died at Florence on the 22d of December, 
1419. Martin V. was chosen on the 11th of No- 
vember, 1417, and sat twelve years, three months, 
and twelve days, according to an inscription on his 
brass monument in the Lateran Basilic. Eugenius 
IV. succeeded him, and died in the sixteenth year 
of his pontificate. Nicholas V. his successor, died 
in March, 1455. Calixtus III. held the pontificate 
from the 8th of April, 1455, till the 6th of August, 
1458. Pius II. being elected the same year, on the 
27th of August, died on the 14th of August, 1464. 
On his demise, Paul II. being raised to the pontifi- 
cate, viva voce, by the means of Cardinal Bessarion, 
died on the 26th of July, 1471. Sixtus IV. succeed- 
ed him, and sat till the 13th of August, 1484. In- 
nocent VIII. was elected on the 29th of the same 
month, and died in July, 1492. Alexander VI. was 
chosen the same year, on the 1 1th of August, and 
died on the 1 8th of August, 1503. On him the fol- 
lowing distich was made : 

u Visuram se iteriun Six tain cum Roma fiutarct, 
" Pro SixtoSextum vidit, et ingeniuit." 
When Rome another Sixtus wish 9 d return' d y 
A Sextus she beheld, and deeply mourn'd. 
In this century the peace of the Church was 
greatly disturbed by a long schism. Italy suffered 
great loss by the absence of the popes, and the city 
of Rome in particular, was torn by different fac- 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 331 

tions. The Romans complained that their bishops 
had for seventy-four years past, forsaken their 
Church, and they ardently wished for, and earnestly 
solicited, their return from Avignon* In fine, Gre- 
gory XI. yielding to their pressing entreaties and 
importunities, removed his seat from Avignon on 
the 13th of September, 1376, and was received at 
Rome, amidst the acclamations of the people, with 
the most lively demonstrations of joy. After his 
death the Romans, fearing lest the new Pope, if he 
happened to be a Frenchman, might fix his resi- 
dence again at Avignon, assembled in crowds about 
the palace where the cardinals were deliberating, 
and cried out, We will have a Roman Pofie. To these 
seditious clamours they added menaces. The car- 
dinals being intimidated, named the archbishop of 
Bari, who took the name of Urban VI. Sixteen 
of the cardinals being afterwards dissatisfied witri 
their choice, departed from Rome, declared their 
election null, because it was not free, and elected 
another Pope, under the name of Clement VII. 
This unhappy affair threw the Church into a dread- 
ful confusion. Christendom was divided between 
two Popes : Clement was acknowledged in France-, 
in Spain, in Scotland, and Sicily ; whilst England, 
Hungary, Bohemia, and a part of Germany, de- 
clared for Urban. The death of Urban did not 
terminate the schism, the cardinals of his obedience r 
as they were then called, having elected a succes- 
sor, which the opposite party likewise did on 
their side. These dismal scenes were frequently 
renewed. In the year 1409, the cardinals, afflicted 
at the continuance of so scandalous a division among 
the faithful, resolved to put an end to it, and for 
this purpose they united in the council of Pisa, and 
having withdrawn their obedience from the two con- 
tending popes, Gregory XII. and Benedict XIIL 
they unanimously elected Alexander V. This 
council was composed of twenty-two cardinals, twen- 
ty-four archbishops, one hundred and eighty-two 
bishops, with above three hundred abbots and theo- 
logians. But all their efforts proved ineffectual 



332 \ HISTORY OP THE 

the schism still continued, and the evil consequence* 
increased. The obstinacy of the popes, the jea- 
lousy of the cardinals on both sides, and the dif- 
ferent interests of the crowned heads, seemed to 
forebode a perpetual continuance of the schism, if 
God, who promised not to abandon his Church, had 
not removed all the obstacles which the human pas- 
sions opposed to the re-establishment of union. HU 
divine Providence was pleased at length to accom- 
plish this great work in the sixteenth general coun- 
cil, which was assembled in 1414, at Constance in 
Grmany, near Switzerland. John XXIII. Sigis- 
mond the emperor, four patriarchs, forty- three 
archbishops, one hundred and sixty bishops, and up- 
wards of a hundred and sixty abbots and eminent 
theologians, were present at this council. All the 
pretenders to the pop* d<>m being cited to appear, 
eit er abdicated voluntarily, or were deposed, and 
Martin V. was canonically elected, and generally 
ack owledged for the only lawful head of the 
Church. Thus ended the schism, after having con- 
tinued thirty-six years. In this extraordinary case, 
the Church had full power to assemble herself thus 
in a general council, in order to proceed to the- 
election of a pope, whose title should be unques- 
tionable. This is what she did in the council of 
Constance, which, as cardinal Turrecremata ob- 
serves, was but a continuation of the council of 
Pisa. Whilst the election of the contending popes 
continued doubtful, the papal chair might be con- 
sidered in effect the same as vacant, and the faithful 
in the interim might rest as fully convinced of the 
infallibility of the public doctrine of the Church, 
as of the infallibility oi the Gospels, though the 
persons who wrote them were men subject to human, 
passions The whole difference being about a mat- 
ter of fact, that is, about the validity of the elec- 
tion of the popes, the people were not on this ac- 
count the less attached to the apostolic see and chair 
of St. t'eter. They still continued 10 believe that 
there was but one visible head of ihe Church, and 
that he only who had been canonically elected, was 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 333" 

this head and the true pontiff. They were not, in- 
deed, competent judges, in the concurrence of dif- 
ferent pretenders, to discern which of them was the 
lawful pope, or which of them had been duly elect- 
ed ; but in this case they might, with a safe con- 
science, follow the opinion and directions of their 
respective pastors, as St. Antoninus remarks. 

Besides the extinction of the long schism, another 
object, which the council of Constance had in view, 
was the suppression of the heretical errors of 
Wiclef, a doctor of Oxford, which John Huss, 
rector of the university of Prague, and Jerom his 
disciple, were spreading at that time through Bo- 
hemia, until they were condemned, degraded, and 
handed over to the civil power in the year 1415. 
The Hussites raised great commotions in that king- 
dom for about one hundred years, and filled it with 
civil wars, tumults, bloodshed, plunders, sacrileges, 
the ruin of families, and every other sort of cala- 
mity. The New Adamites, the Fossarii, and Thabo- 
rites, gave great scandal, and perpetrated the most 
horrid crimes. The Calixtins, so called from their 
belief of the nececessity of communion under both 
kinds, painted the form of a chalice in so many 
places, that they gave occasion to the folio Viing 
distich : 

46 Tot fiingit Calices Bohemorum terra per Urbes, 
" Ut credas Bacchi numina sola coti." 

So many cufis Bohemia does afford, 
You'd fancy Bacchus only was ador'd. 

John Zisca, a veteran general and a follower of 
John Huss, having assembled a powerful army, 
plundered that whole country with unheard of bar- 
barity, and built the strong fortress, which he called 
Thabor, amidst waters and mountains, He defeated 
the emperor Sigismond's armies eight times, and 
when he was dying of a pestilence at Priscon, in 
the year 1424, he ordered a drum to be made of his 
skin to terrify his enemies. 

In the midst of all the foregoing scandals, the 
grand design cf God, which is the sanctification' of 



334 HISTORY OF THE 

his elect, was brought about and accomplished, and 
the succession of saints was kept up by St. Antoni- 
nus, archbishop of Florence ; St. Vincent Ferrerius ; 
St. Laurence Justinian, patriarch of Venice; St. 
Bernardinus of Sienna; St. Thomas of Kempis; St. 
John Capistran; St. Nicholas Albergati; St. John 
of Sahagun; St. Didacus ; St. James de la Marcha; 
St. Casimir, prince of Poland ; St. Frances of Rome ; 
St. Catharine of Bologna; St. Catharine of Genoa; 
St. Jane of France; St. Coleta; St. Anthony of 
Amandula; St. Andrew de Monte Regalia; St. An- 
thony of Aquila ; St. Veronica of Binasco ; St. Rita 
of Cassia, St. Francis of Paula, the founder of the re- 
ligious order of the Minims, with many others, who 
were eminent for the gift of miracles, and who edi- 
fied the world by the sweet odour of their virtues. 
See Alban Butler, torn. 4. p. 10. 

The faith was in this century preached with great 
success in the kingdoms of Congo and Angola in 
Afric, and the inhabitants of the Canary Islands 
were gained over to the Church of Christ. Five 
and twenty thousand Jews and Moors were also 
converted, and a prodigious number of schismatics 
and of bad Christians were reclaimed by the 
preaching, labours, and miracles of St. Vincent 
Ferrerius. 

St. Laurence Justinian, says Dr. Cave, was a pre- 
late admirable for his sincere piety towards God, the 
ardour of his zeal for the divine honour, and the ex- 
cess of his charity to the poor, which seemed a sea 
that could not be drained. His writings consist of 
sermons, letters, and fourteen treatises of piety, full 
of unction. He was constituted by Nicholas V. first 
Patriarch of Venice. 

There were but three patriarchs acknowledged in 
the Church 'till the fourth century. The bishop of 
Rome was the patriarch of the West, and the bishops 
of the great sees of Alexandria and Antioch were 
the patriarchs of the East. Afterwards the patri- 
archal dignity was conferred on Jerusalem, on ac- 
count of its sanctity, and Constantinople, on account 
of the Imperial seat, usurped the patriarchal right in 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 335 

the year 381, but not without much opposition. For 
peace sake it was at length agreed to by a decree of 
the Council of Lateran, in the year 1215, that next 
after Rome, Constantinople should hold the second 
rank, Alexandria the third, Antioch the fourth, and 
Jerusalem the fifth. The title of Vicar of Jesus 
Christy was always peculiar to the bishops of Rome, 
as is manifest from the fifteenth letter of St. Cyprian 
to l-'ope Cornelius. — The title of Papa, or Pope, 
which signifies Father ■, was anciently common to all 
bishops, they being the Fathers of the Church. For 
many ages past custom has confined this title to the 
bishop of Rome only, who in quality of head of the 
whole Church, and successor of St. Peter, who fixed 
his apostolic seat and died in Rome, is the spiritual 
father of all the faithful. Some writers say that the 
word Papa comes from the initial letters of these 
four words, Petrus, Apostolus, Princeps, Apostolo- 
rum, which being abbreviated with a punctum or co- 
lon after each of the four initial letters, coalesced in 
progress of time into the word Papa, without any 
intermediate punctuation. Hence it follows, that 
Baron Holbergand some other historians are greatly 
mistaken, when they assert that the order of the Ec- 
clesiastical Hierachy was introduced in the eighth 
century ; it being evident from the sixth and seventh 
canons of the first General Council of Nice, and 
from the first Council of Ephesus, that Metropoli- 
tans and Archbishops had been previously establish- 
ed. Bingham in his antiquities also proves that the 
title of Archbishop was mentioned by Justinian in 
the sixth century. The truth is, that the institution 
of Bishops, Metropolitans or Archbishops, Primates 
and Patriarchs, originated in the practice of the 
Apostles, who, as Eusebius and St. John Chrysos- 
tom observe, committed the care of the churches in 
Crete to Titus, and intrusted Timothy with the su- 
perintendance of all the churches in Asia Minor, to 
direct all the public and common affairs of them. 

St. Antoninus, archbishop of Florence, was emi- 
nent for his writings, as well as for his piety. His 
principal work is his Sum of Moral Divinity, divided 



336 HISTORY OF THE 

into four parts, wherein all virtues and vices are ex- 
plained ; the former enforced by pathetic motives 
and examples, and the latter painted in the most 
striking colours, to inspire Christians with horror. 
St. John Capistran wrote some tracts on the Council 
of Basil, on the Last Judgment , on the Spiritual 
Warfare, on the Civil and Canon Jaw, tJfc. The 
works of St. Bernardine are printed in five volumes 
folio. The works of Thomas of Kempis, a canon 
regular of the order of St. Augustine, bear evident 
testimony to his extraordinary sanctity, especially 
the incomparable book of the Imitation of Christ, 
whereof he is said to be the author, or at least the 
copier. It is the privilege of this book to be the 
pocket companion of devout persons, as it is the ge- 
nuine effusion of a perfect Christian spirit. Fonte- 
neile calls it the most excellent book that ever came 
from the hand of man, the holy scriptures being of 
divine original. The Spiritual Combat may be call- 
ed its key, or introduction. That great contempla- 
tive Thomas of Kempis died in 1471, in the 91st 
year of his age. About the same period died also 
the renowned prodigy of wit and learning, John Pi- 
ous, prince of Mirandula, in the 32d year of his age. 
The folllowing epitaph w T as engraved on his tomb : 

Joannes jacet hie Mirandula, cxtera norant 
Et Tagus, et Ganges, for san et Antipodes. 

Of John Mirandula, here all does lie 
That mortal was, and that could ever die : 
For what virtue, learning, sense could him give, 
Throughout the world his fame shall ever live. 

There were several other celebrated writers in 
this century, particularly Cardinal Peter de Alliaco, 
and John Gerson, his disciple, Cardinal John, a 
Turrecremata, Cardinal Nicholas Cusa, Bessarion, 
<irchbishop of Nice, Gregory, archbishop of Con- 
stantinople, Gabriel Biel, Joannes Capriolus, Tho- 
mas Walden, Paulus Utinensis, Andreas Bilius, 
Dionysius Carthusianus, Gennadius, Joseph, bishop 
of Modiors^ Jacobus Perez ; Henricus Harpius, Pau- 



CHURCH OF CHRIST* 337 

lus Burgensis, Honuphrius, and Alphonsus Tos- 
tatus, of whom it is said : 
j Hie stu/wr estmundi) qui scibile discutiC omne. 

Here rests, 'till summoned to th? Almighty Throne^ 
A prodigy , who knew all could be known. 

In the year 1418 near two thousand students were 
put to death by the people, in a sedition at Paris, 
and the same year the Portuguese began the disco* 
very of Madeira, and several other islands on tho 
Western coast of Africa, and found a passage by 
sea to the East Indies, with which no commerce 
was then open, but through Egypt or Persia. 
Americus Vaspusius, a Florentine, discovered Bra- 
zil in 1497, and Vasco de Gama, the Portuguese 
admiral, doubled the Cafie of Good Hofie, in 1498, 
and having discovered the coast of Mozambique, 
and the city of Melinda, upon the African coast, 
he sailed thence to Calicut in the East Indies, The 
art of printing with types cast in metal was invent- 
ed about the year 1440, and propagated through 
Germany, France, Italy, England, &c. The first 
book that was printed YtasDurandi Rationale Divino- 
rum Officiorum. It came from the new press of 
John Fust and Peter Schoeffer>his partner, who were 
aided in their expensive enterprise by John Gutten- 
berg) a native of Mentz, settled then at Strasburgh. 
The polite arts received great improvement from 
the invention of printing, especially after the taking 
of Constantinople by the Turks, for the Grecian 
scholars being then exiled and scattered over the 
West, brought into it all the Oriental learning, and 
gave no small support to the cultivation of letters, 
first in Italy, and afterwards in other parts of Europe. 
A new plan of education was then adopted, pub- 
lic schools were opened for the improvement of 
youth, and several academies were established, par- 
ticularly at Herbipolis, in Franconia, in 1403, at Tours 
in <405, at Leipsic in 1408, at Louvain in 1426, at 
Valentia in i452, at Nantz and Fribourg in 1 46o, at 
Basil in 1459, at Ingolstadt in U72, at Copenhagen 
2 F 



338 HISTORY OF THE 

in 1479, at Strasburg in 1487, at Munster, in West- 
phalia, in 1490, kc. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

The seventeenth General Council held at Florence^ 
for the extinction of the Greek schism^ life, 

CANONISTS and theologians require to a gen- 
eral council the presence of the chief -.patriarchs, as 
principal prelates, (at least by their deputies,) and 
of bishops, from the different kingdoms of the 
Catholic Church, who represent the body of the 
pastors of the whole Church. The confirmation 
of the chief pastor is also deemed, by most divines, 
a necessary condition- If doubts arise whether a 
council be general, it is to be considered whether it 
be looked upon by the Church as such, and as the 
representative of the whole ; or whether the whole 
Church receives and acquiesces in its decisions; which 
the faithful, having their pastors and teachers always 
ready to instruct them, cannot in practice be at a loss 
to know, though this may sometimes be obscure, till 
circumstances are cleared up. The aforesaid condi- 
tions were wanting at Basil after the tenth session. 
That council was continued eighteen years, first at 
Basil, afterwards at Lausanne. Its proceedings in 
1433, concerning the Hussites, and some points of 
ecclesiastical discipline, were approved and confirmed 
byEugenius IV. who, during the tenth session, or- 
dered the council to be removed, and from this time 
his legates were refused admittance. Wherefore, it 
is allowed by most, that this council was legal and 
general in the beginning, but it became afterwards a 
particular synod and schismatical conventicle, especi- 
ally when it was solemnly dissolved by a bull of 
Fai genius, and a general council opened at Ferrarain 
1437. Turrecremata, and a considerable part of 
the prelates that were assembled at Basil, removed 
then, after the twenty- sixth session, but some staid 
behind, and continued their sessions schismatically 
during the forty-five last sessions. In 1438 they 
approved the French pragmatic sanction of Charles 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 339 

VII. relating chiefly to the collation of benefices, 
and in 1439 they prevailed upon Amadcus VII. for- 
merly duke of Savoy, and then a hermit at Ripalles, 
near the Lake of Geneva, to receive from them, 
under the name of Felix V. a pretended pontificate, 
which he afterwards voluntarily resigned in 1449. 

The true general council met first at Fcrrara in 
1437, and thither John Palxologus, the Greek Em- 
peror — Joseph, the patriarch of Constantinople — 
wiih the other prelates, repaired. After sixteen ses- 
sions a contagious distemper breaking out at Ferra- 
ra, the council was removed by Eugenius IV. to Flo- 
rence, in 1439 ; and the same year, on the Gth of Ju- 
ly, after all difficulties had been discussed, the re- 
union of the Western, or Latin Church, and of the East- 
ern, or Greek Church, was agreed to, and a decree was 
drawn up for that purpose. The Greek emperor — 
the deputies of the patriarchs of Alexandria, And- 
och, and Jerusalem — with sixteen Oriental metropo- 
litans, or archbishops— several bishops — ten abbots ; 
and a great number of other Greek dignitaries and 
ecclesiastics of distinguished abilities, having re- 
nounced their schism and errors, openly professed 
according to the faith of the Roman Catholic Church, 
that the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father and 
the Son, and that the Pope was head of the Uni- 
versal Church. They all, Greeks as well as Latins, 
embraced one another in token of union and mutual 
charity, and subscribed the decree, except Mark, 
archbishop of Ephesus. After the departure of the 
Greeks, the Armenians abjured their heresy, and al- 
so signed. a decree of union. This council lasted 
three years after the conclusion of this momentous 
affair, and was at length dissolved at Rome, in the 
Late ran palace, in 1442. 

The eyes of all Christendom had been attentively 
fixed on this council, and the happy issue of it dif- 
fused universal joy through the Church. But this 
bright sun-shine of concord and joy had only emerg- 
ed from one cloud to be intercepted by another, for 
the Greeks, thus brought back to the bosom of their 
mother Church, relapsed shortly again into their for- 



340 HISTORY OF THE 

mer schism. The obstinate prelate, Mark of Ephe- 
6us, on his return to Constantinople, finding the peo- 
ple of that city violently prepossessed against the 
union, availed himself of this opportunity to declaim 
and write against it. An inundation of libels soon ap- 
peared, fraught with virulence, calumnies, and false- 
hoods. Those who had subscribed the decree, were 
bitterly reviled and treated with so much cruelty, 
that many of them lost courage, yielded to the stream, 
. and gave up the cause. 

Pope Nicholas V. a pontiff of remarkable piety 
and learning, grieving at the invincible obstinacy of 
the Greeks, and reflecting on the repeated and un- 
successful labours, which had been taken for their 
conversion, wrote to them a letter in the beginning 
of the year 145 i, in which he exhorted them in a pa- 
thetic manner to open their eyes to their past stub- 
bornness, and to re unite themselves to the Catholic 
Church. He addressed himself in particular to Con- 
stantine Palaeologus, their emperor, in the following 
words : " The Greeks have already too long abused 
" the patience of God, in persisting in their schism. 
u According to the parable of the Gospel, God 
" waits to see if the fig-tree, after having been cul- 
" tivated with so much care, will at last yield fruit ; 
" but if it does not, within the space of three years, 
4< which God still allows them, the tree will be cut 
*' down by the root, and the Greek nation shall be 
" entirely ruined by the ministers of Divine Justice, 
" which God will send to execute the sentence al- 
" ready pronounced in Heaven against them." 

This prediction was literally accomplished, for in 
the year 1453, Mahomet II. having besieged Con- 
stantinople with a land army of three hundred thou- 
sand men, and a fleet of above one hundred gallies, 
with a hundred and thirty other smaller vessels, be- 
gan a general assault both by sea and land, on the 
29th of May, early in the morning. He animated 
his troops so surprisingly, that they advanced through 
the most violent fire of the besieged, and a storm of 
darts and stones, over the dead bodies of those that 
were slain, till they became masters of the city. A 



CHtJRCH OF CHRIST. 341 

jteitfary having planted the Turkish standard on the 
top of the wall, the Turks immediately poured in 
like a torrent, at a breach which they had made by shoot- 
ing stone bullets of two hundred pounds weight from 
fourteen batteries, as Phranzcs, the Greek historian, 
relates. The emperor and eight hundred of his sol- 
diers were trod to death in the breach, by the bar- 
barians, and the fugitives were slaughtered without 
mercy. It is computed that forty thousand Greeks 
perished on this unhappy occasion, besides sixty thou- 
sand who were afterwards sold for slaves. Mahomet 
allowed his victorious troops to plunder the city for 
three days, during which they gave a loose to the 
human passions, were guilty of all kind of excesses, 
and perpetrated the most execrable crimes ever re- 
corded in the annals of history. Mahomet himself, 
who is said to have caused the bellies of fourteen of 
his own pages to be ripped open, that he might dis- 
cover which of them had eaten a melon taken from 
him, gave manifest proofs of his tyrannical cruelty on 
this occasion ; for he caused the Emperor's head to 
be cut 01T and fixed on a pike, and his body to bo 
treated with the greatest indignity ; he ordered the 
nobles and grandees to be massacred and dissected, 
and the bodies of the empress and her daughters to 
be cut in pieces, and inhumanly served up on dish- 
es at a banquet. Yet Divine Providence, for its own 
wise reasons, w r as pleased to permit this monster to 
prosper in this world, and to be flushed with such 
wonderful success, that he overthrew the two 
Christian empires of Constantinople and Trebisonde, 
subdued twelve kingdoms, and took about two hun- 
dred cities during his reign. He immediaiely remov- 
ed his imperial seat from Adrianople to Constanti- 
nople, which has continued ever since to be the re- 
sidence of the Turkish emperors. After the reduc- 
tion of Constantinople, he counted the Western Em- 
pire as already his own, and looked upon himself as 
master of all Christendom, not doubting but he 
should soon plant the Ottoman crescent in the heart 
of Europe, and in the cities of Vienna and Rome. 
He marched his victorious troops into Hungary, and 
2 F 2 



342 HISTORY OF THE 

sat down before Belgrade on the 3d of June, !4S6, 
but the brave John Corvin, commonly called Hun- 
modes* compelled him to raise the siege on the 6th 
of August, and to retreat with great precipitation, 
leaving behind him all his heavy artillery and bag- 
gage, with the greatest part of his booty, and sixty 
thousand of his best soldiers killed. The Almighty, 
whose finger is able to overthrow phalanxes that 
seem invincible, was pleased to make use of him as 
a scourge to punish the crying sins of the Greeks. 
A similar fate attended the empires and cities of 
Ninive and Babylon, Tyre, Sidon, and Jerusalem : 
when the people of God had renounced their fide- 
lity to him, he delivered them over in his wrath 
to the sword of the Pagans, their inveterate ene- 
mies. He sent Nabuchodonosor, Vespasian, and 
Titus to scourge them, to ravage their country, to 
destroy them by famine, fire, and sword, and to 
carry the survivors into captivity. So true it is, 
that a deviation from the laws of Cod is often the 
occasion of the calamities which sooner or later 
befal kingdoms and states, and terminate in their 
utter ruin. The Western Empire was sacrificed 
for the extinction of Idolatry at the very time pre- 
ordained by God, and the barbarian Goths and 
Vandals were sent as instruments of divine ven- 
geance, to demolish Pagan Rome, in punishment of 
its crying sins. In like manner the Eastern Empire 
was marked cut as a victim of destruction, and sen- 
tenced to be enslaved by a barbarous race, who are 
the greatest enemies to Christianity. The Turks 
and Mahometans were employed as the instruments 
of God's avenging justice to chastise the people of 
Constantinople, and swallow up their empire, which 
had espoused and fostered the heretical and schisma- 
tical doctrines of the Arians, Macedonians, Nestori- 
ans, Eutychians, Photians, &c. The Greeks had re- 
iinqmshed the orthodox faith of their ancestors, and 
rejected a tenet relating to the procession of the 
Holy Ghost, which ha.d been defined by the Church 
in the year 381, and inserted in the ISicene Creed 
by the general council at Constantinople. It is cer- 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 343 

tain that they had been seven or eight hundred years 
in communion with the Church of Rome, and that, 
during that time, they acknowledged the Pope as 
Visible Head of the Universal Church, as appears 
from the first seven general councils, which were 
held in the East, and in which the primacy of the 
Pope had been authentically acknowledged. Photius 
himself, who had sown the first 3ecds of the dissen- 
tion in the ninth century, did not disagree. The 
Church of Constantinople never pretended but to be 
the second Rome, and to hold the first rank after her. . 
The see of Rome was on all hands allowed to be the 
centre of unity, and all Christians recited the Creed 
then, and said, after the council of Constantinople, as 
they now say, I believe the Church^which is one , Holy ', 
Catholic, and Apostolic. They unanimously professed 
that there w T as a true Church in the world, to which. 
the four distinctive -characters of the Church of 
Christ belonged. They believed that there was a 
society on earth called the true Church of Christ, 
and composed of pastors and people, and that the 
Pope, or bishop of Rome, was its visible head. It 
is therefore true to say, and easy to show, that the 
Greeks, on separating themselves from the Church, 
which acknowledged the Pope for its visible head, 
and which was incontestibly the true Church during 
the eight first centuries, separated from the true 
Church of Christ, dissolved the chain of unity, and 
withdrew themselves from the society of the faithful, 
to erect a different society that did not exist before. 
In fine, they have condemned themselves in their own 
judgment^ as the Apostle speaks, 1 Tit. 10, 5 ). They 
changed their faith backwards and forwards different 
times. They solemnly renounced their errors, and 
subscribed to their own condemnation in the coun- 
cils of Lyons and Florence, but unhappily relapsed 
into their fatal schism and heresy. Of such persons 
St. Jude says, in his Catholic Epistle, v. 19. and 22, 
These are they who sefiarate themselves : sensual 
men, having not the spirit — being reproved and 
judged. God in his mercy waited many years for 
the conversion of the Greeks, but finding therri 



344 HISTORY OF THE 

hardened and inflexible, he cut them off at length, 
like the barren fig-tree. In fine, when the measure 
of their iniquity was filled up, they were delivered 
into the hands of Barbarians, and have ever since 
continued to groan under the Turkish yoke to this 
very day. Thus, as the Western Empire, which had 
been founded by Augustus, expired in Augustulus, 
so in like manner the Eastern Empire, which had 
been founded by Constantine the Great, was ex- 
tinguished in Constantine Palseologus, eleven hun- 
dred and twenty-three years after its first establish- 
ment. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

The Church of the Sixteenth Century, 

THE chief pastors in this age were Pius III. 
Julius II. Leo X. Adrian VI. Clement VII. Paul 
III. Julius III. Marcellus II. Paul IV. Pius IV, 
Pius V. Gregory XIII. Sixtus V. Urban VII, Gre- 
gory XIV. Innocent IX. and Clement VIII. 

Pius 111. filled the apostolic see twenty-six days 
only. Julius II. succeeded him in the year 1503, 
and died on the 2 1st of February, 1513. Leo. X. 
held the pontificate eight years and about nine 
nonths. He was succeeded in January, 1522, by 
Adrian VI. who sat till the 14th of September, 
)523. Clement VII. sat near eleven years; and 
Paul the III. about nine years. Julius HI. governed 
the Church from the 8th of February, 1550, to the 
23d of March, 1555; and Marcellus II. only twen- 
ty-one days. Paul IV. sat four years and about 
three months ; and Pius IV. almost six years. St. 
Pius V. filled the pontifical chair from the 7th of 
January, 1566, to the 1st of May, 1572. Gre- 
gory XIII. who happily executed the reformation 
of the Calendar, and established the new style, in 
the year 1582, sat thirteen years, wanting one 
month; Sixtus V. five years and four months; 
Urban VII. ten days ; Gregory XIV. ten months 
and nine days ; Innocent IX. two months ; and Cle- 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 34i 

ment VIII. ten years and one month, dying on the 
3d of March, 1605. 

New nations in the most remote parts of both the 
Eastern and Western hemispheres were brought to 
the flock of Christ, and millions of converts were 
gained over to the Church in this age, by apostolic 
preachers and zealous missionaries, who were sent 
to announce the Gospel, and spread over the whole 
world the fire which Christ himself came to kindle 
on earth. This conversion of barbarous nations, 
according to the Divine Commission, is the prero- 
gative of the Catholic Church, in which she never 
had any rival. 

Two general councils were held in this century, 
viz. the fifth Council of Lateran^ which was the 
eighteenth general council ; and the Council of 
Trent> which was the nineteenth and last general 
council. The council of Lateran was opened in 
the year 1512, under Julius II. for the purpose of 
rescinding the acts of the conventicle held at Pisa 
the foregoing year, and for abolishing the Pragmatic 
Sanction^ or constitution, that was made in the 
year 1438, at Bourges, under Charles VII. king of 
France, during the sitting of the council of Basil* 
The Lateran council, after having been twice pro- 
rogued, was concluded in 1517, and the differences 
which had arisen from the Pragmatic Sanction were 
at length terminated by the famous Concordate en- 
tered into between Leo X. and Francis I. king of 
France. The patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch 
were present at this council, besides fifteen cardi- 
nals, twenty-two archbishops, fifty-five bishops, the 
generals of the religious orders, and the orators of 
France, Spain, Venice, Poland, kc. 

The council of Trent was opened in the cathedral 
church of that city, on the 13th of December, 
1545, and, after having been often interrupted and 
resumed, was brought to a conclusion on the 5th 
of December, in 15 63. There assisted at it six 
cardinals, four legates, three patriarchs, thirty- 
two archbishops, two hundred and twenty-eight 
bishops, thirty-nine deputies of absent prelates, 



346 HISTORY OF THE 

seven abbots, seven generals of religious orders, 
and above one hundred and fifty theologians, emi- 
nent for learning in the Scriptures, fathers, anti- 
quities, and languages, with some of the ablest 
canonists of all Catholic nations, who attended and 
discussed every point in the conferences. No new 
articles of faith were formed or defined in this coun- 
cil, but every thing was weighed in the balance 
of the sanctuary, and the ancient doctrine, and 
"unanimous belief of all foregoing ages, was ma- 
turely examined and explicitly declared. This is 
the course which the Church has invariably pur- 
sued through the whole period of the Christian 
?era. She has constantly preserved the sacred de- 
positum, which was received from her Divine 
Founder, and delivered by the Apostles. Her doc- 
trine of faith is always the same, and constantly 
uniform. Her decrees and decisions in dogmatical 
points are unalterable and irrevocable to the end of 
the world ; and the one true faith is so essential to 
her cpnstitution, that without it she would no more 
continue to be the Church of Christ, than a man 
would continue to be a man without a soul. It is 
objected by Fra Paolo and Courayer, that several 
kings and prelates had private views, and employed 
intrigues in this council which could not be in- 
spired by the Holy Ghost. But cardinal Pallivicini 
has clearly proved, that both Fra Paolo and Cou- 
rayer were party writers, and have retailed many 
notorious slanders and errors. It is true, indeed, 
ambition, envy, and the like vices, may easily dis- 
guise and insinuate themselves even into the sanc- 
tuary under false cloaks, but they cannot prevent 
Christ from leading the pastors of his Church into 
all truth, by a special protection which does not 
necessarily imply an inspiration. His promises to 
his Church are the anchor of the Catholic faith, 
and the very contests and pretended intrigues among 
the kings and prelates, prove the liberty which the 
council enjoyed, and only serve to convince us, that 
neither the weakness nor the passions of men were 
able to defeat or annul the promises of Christ. 



CHURCH OF CIIR1S.X. S47 

The succession of saints was kept up in this age 
by St. Charles Borromseus, archbishop of Milan ; 
St. Thomas of Villanova, archbishop of Valentia*, 
styled the Father of the Poor; St. Pius V. St. Igna- 
tius of Loyola; St. Francis Xaverius, apostle of 
the Indies ; St. Aloysius Gonzaga ; St. Francis 
Borgia ; St. Lewis Bertrand ; St. John of God ; St 
Stanislaus Kosta ; St. Andrew Aveilino ; St. John 
of the Cross ; St. Teresa ; St. Philip Neri ; St. 
Peter of Alcantara, author of a golden book On 
mental firayer, which ran through near fifty editions 
before his death ; St. Cajetan of Thienna ; St. Je- 
o° n V^ mihani of Somasch a ; St. Paschal Baylon ; 
St. Felix of Cantalicio ; St. Catharine de Ricci, and 
a numberless multitude of happy souls and glorious 
martyrs, who suffered cruel torments and death for 
the faith in various parts of the world, and whose 
sanctity has been attested by a great number of il- 
lustrious miracles.— See Alban Butler, torn. 3. p. 76- 
torn. 5. p. 341 ; torn. 12. p. 17. ' 

Seminaries were erected at this period for the 
education of the clergy, and public schools opened 
in all places for training up youth in christian piety, 
beveral religious orders and regular congregations 
were likewise instituted: The Theatins' in 1514 • 
the Capuchins, founded by Mathew Bassius in 1525* 
and approved by Clement VII. in 1528 ; the Bar! 
nabites in j526, and approved by Paul III. in 1535 • 
the Recollects, or reformed Franciscans of strict 
observance, in 1532; the Jesuits in 1534- the 
Congregation of St. Peter of Alcantara in '1555. 
tne regular Clerks of the Christian doctrine in 
1570; the Oratorians in 1575; the Discalceate 
Carmelites, confirmed by Gregory XIII. in 1580, 
Sec. all these different orders making a beautiful va- 
riety in the Church militant, and forming so many 
societies and companies, united in the profession of 
the same Creed, and tending toward Christian per- 
lection, by different exercises of piety and devotion, 
lie Maronites, so called from St. Maro Abbot, 
-vviio erected many Monasteries in Syria, and trained 
up a great number of holy solitaries in the fifth 



34* HISTORY OF THE 

century, were enveigled for a while into the Greek 
schism, but they returned to the communion of the 
Catholic Church under Gregory XIII. and Clement 
VIII. They have a seminary at Rome, which has 
produced several great men, who have exceedingly 
promoted true literature. Their patriarchs, styled 
of Antioch, is confirmed by the Pope, resides in a 
monastery in Syria, at the foot of Mount Libanus, 
and has under him five metropolitans, namely, of 
Tyre, Damascus, Tripoli, Aleppo, and Nicosia, the 
capital of Cyprus. 

Divine providence was pleased to raise a great 
number of learned doctors and ecclesiastical writers 
in this age. The most celebrated were, Cardinal 
Thomas Cajetan ; Cardinal Stanislaus Hosius, bi- 
shop of Wormia, in Poland, and one of the ablest 
polemical writers that any age ever produced ; Car- 
dinal Hieronymus Seripandus, one of the presidents 
of the council of Trent ; Cardinal jEgidius Viter- 
biensis ; John Driedo doctor of Louvain; Claude 
d'Espense doctor of Sorbonne ; Nicholas Maillard, 
dean of that faculty ; William Estius ; Joannes 
HofTmeisterus ; Albertus Pighius; Cardinal Regi- 
nald Pole, who is much extolled by Burnet himself 
for his erudition and virtue; Anthony Augustinus, 
archbishop of Tarracona, and one of the greatest 
men, says Du Pin, that Spain ever bred ; Melchior 
Canus ; Dominicus Soto ; Petrus Soto ; Bartholo- 
mew de Martyribus, archbishop of Braga; Cardinal 
Francis Toletus ; Ludovicus Vives; Alphonsus 
Rodiiguez Lewis of Granada, whose works have 
been translated into all the languages of Europe ; 
Lewis Blosius ; Martinus Navarrus ; Joannes 
Cochloeus; Alphonsus Salmeron ; Cardinal Com- 
mendon; and Cardinal Frederic Borromaeo, who 
wrote several pious works, and founded the famous 
Ambrosian Library at Milan, which is said now to 
contain thirty-eight thousand volumes, including 
fourteen thousand manuscripts, with many literary 
curiosities, and curious monuments of antiquity. 
The venerable John of Avila, a native of the 
tHocese of Toledo, flourished in this century, and 



CHURCH OF CHRIfT. 349 

was the edification of the Church by his virtues, its 
support by his zeal, its oracle by his doctrine. He 
was a profound and universal genius, a prudent and 
upright director, a prodigy of penance, a celebra- 
ted preacher, powerful in words and works, the glo- 
ry of the priesthood, the apostle of Andalusia, revered 
all Spain, and known to the Christian world. About 
this time Thomas of Jesus was author of the ex- 
cellent book entitled the Sufferings of Christy which 
he composed whilst he was confined for the faith in 
a frightful dungeon in Morocco. 

Whilst the church was extending her branches 
over every region of the globe with amazing suc- 
cess, the Turks, the great enemies of Christianity, 
made several attempts to add the Western kingdom 
to the Ottoman Empire. The numerous armies of 
Amurath and Mahomet II. had been often defeated 
in the 15th century by the famous George Castriot, 
-whom they called Scanderbeg, that is, Lord Alex* 
ander. However, this did not deter Solyman II. 
named the Magnificent, from resolving to over- run 
all Christendom with his arms. He took Belgrade 
in the year 1521, Rhode Island in 1522, defeated 
Lewis, king of Hungary, in 1526, took Buda in 
1529, and besieged Vienna in the reign of Charles 
V. and, though he was forced to raise the siege, 
after lying a month before that city, and after losing 
eighty thousand men, he broke into Hungary in 
1532, with a formidable army of three hundred 
thousand horse and foot, and carried devastation 
with him all over that kingdom. He took the island 
of Corcyra from the Venetians in 1587, and brought 
several thousands of prisoners with him to Con- 
stantinople. He penetrated again into Hungary 
in 1541, 1543, and 1551. He invaded Tripoli, in 
Africa, in 1560, and destroyed the Spanish fleet, 
with eighteen thousand men. In the year 1566, he 
besieged the isle of Malta for the space of four 
months, but was obliged to retreat with eight 
thousand men, though the garrison, commanded 
by the valiant John Valette, the grand master of 
2 G 



350 HISTORY OF THE 

the Knights ©f Malta, had only six thousand to op- 
pose him. 

Selimus II. the son of Solyman, elated with pride, 
and flushed with the many signal victories he had 
gained in the East, resolved to cany his arms into 
the West. Having already swallowed up in his own 
imgination all Italy, with the neighbouring coun- 
tries, he haughtily demanded of the republic of 
Venice the surrender of the Isle of Cyprus, by 
way of satisfaction for some pretended injuries, but 
in reality, for the sake of his excellent wine, with 
which he was extremely besotted, though forbidden 
by the Alcoran. In the year 1570 he besieged 
and took Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, and in 
1571 the opulent city of Famagusta, where he put 
all the brave Venetian officers to death, and caused 
the governor to be flayed alive in the market-place, 
after cutting off his ears and nose. The Venetians, 
alarmed at those proceedings, immediately fitted 
out a fleet of great gallies and small vessels, with an 
army of twenty thousand valiant soldiers under the 
command of Don John of Austria, son of Charles 
V. They sailed directly from Corfu, and met the 
Turkish fleet, consisting of three hundred and thirty 
vessels in order of battle near the harbour of Lepan- 
to. A bloody and obstinate engagement ensued on 
the 7th of October, and after a fight of three hours 
with equal advantage, the Christians gained a most 
complete victory. The Turks lost thirty thousand 
men, and above two hundred ships and gallies, be- 
side ninety that were stranded, burnt, or sunk, and 
three hundred and seventy-two pieces of cannon. 
Five thousand prisoners were also taken from them, 
and fifteen thousand Christians, who were found 
chained on board their gallies, were set at liberty on 
this occasion. Thus, the Almighty, who has set 
bounds to the raging billows of the sea, and who 
weighs in his hand the globe of the universe as a 
grain of sand, was pleased to fix limits to the power 
of the Barbarians, and to stem the tide of their vic- 
tories in the very height of their pride and prosperity. 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 351 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

The Re-building of the Vatican Church of St. 
Peter, &c. 

IT was in this century, in the year 1506, that Ju- 
lius II. laid the foundation of that finished master- 
piece of architecture, the Vatican Church of St. Pe- 
ter in Rome, the old church being fallen to decay. 
The ancient regular manner of building, which ef- 
fected its purposes with less materials and observed 
the rules of justness and proportion in all parts, 
followed the fate of other polite arts and sciences in 
the West. The Romans learned it from the Greeks, 
but it began to be neglected and depraved among 
them in the reign of Gallien, as appears by his tri- 
umphal arch in Rome. After the inundation of the 
Barbarians, Gothic architecture, in which no certain 
rules, proportions, or measures were observed, took 
place in the West, and was executed with wonder- 
ful success in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth 
centuries, merely by the dint of genius in masons 
and architects, when they got proper encourage- 
ment. The wonderful cathedral of Pisa, the so 
much admired Dominican convent in Bologna, the 
cathedral of Sienna, which is deemed the most finish- 
ed Gothic builing in the world, the rich and majes- 
tic cathedral of Milan, were raised in the eleventh, 
twelfth, and thirteenth ages. From that period ex- 
cellent and ingenious artists, by studying the best 
models of ancient architecture still standing in Italy, 
and by conversing with cardinal Bessarion and other 
learned Greeks, restored the true taste of regular 
architecture. 

The church of St. Peter was begun by the famous 
Bramante Lazari, who died in 15 14. It was conti- 
nued by the renowned architect and prince of paint- 
ers, Raphael Urbin, then by Michael Angelo, Bar- 
rozzi, James de la Porta, and by Made mo, till it was 
dedicated by Urban VIII. in 162 6, and finished un- 
der Paul V. by Bernini. This grand and beautiful 
church is, according to Jones, seven hundred and 



552 History of the 

twenty-two feet long, five hundred and twenty broa3, 
and four hundred and thirty-two feet high. Under 
it there is a spacious subterraneous church, with a 
number of elegant chapels, altars, marble sta- 
tues and vaults, wherein are deposited the remains 
of many holy martyrs, popes, and other saints. But 
the richest treasure of this venerable place consist* 
in one half of the precious relics of St. Peter and 
Paul, which lie in a sumptuous vault, that is most 
richly ornamented with pillars of alabaster, and en- 
closed above with a semicircular balustrade of an- 
tique yellow and white marble, beyond the middle 
of the church, near the patriarchal altar, at which 
only the Pope celebrates mass, unless he commis- 
sions another to officiate there. This sacred vault 
is called, The Confession of St. Peter, or the 
Threshold of the Afiostles {Lamina jifiostolorum) to 
which devout persons have flocked in pilgrimages 
from the primitive ages. The papal altar stands un- 
der the grand dome, and is supported by four huge 
pillars of gilt bronze, which are beautifully turned 
and ornamented with emblematical figures and fes- 
toons, and erected on four lofty square pedestals of 
variegated marble, that are inlaid with large cross 
keys of gilt bronze, representing the keys of St. Pe- 
ter. On the top of the four pillars of this magnifi- 
cent altar are placed four beautiful figures of angels, 
seventeen feet long, and cast of gilt bronze, each of 
them holding a garland of gilt bronze in one hand, 
and with the other supporting a square gilt bronze 
canopy of admirable beauty and most curious work- 
manship, with a bronze cross terminating the whole ; 
at the distance of one hundred and seventy-seven 
palms from the floor. The most amazing part ©i 
this vast edifice is the grand dome, which is sup- 
ported by four stupendous pillars, embellished on 
every side with white marble ballustrades, elegant 
pews, shrines, medallions, pictures, busts, and sta- 
tues of Egyptian marble, and a great variety of em- 
blematical figures in mosaic, Sec. The dome is four 
hundred and ninety-four palms high, and one hun- 
dred and nine-two in diameter. The interior of it 



CHURCH OF CHRIST- 353 

ia finished in the highest taste, and encircled with a 
palisadoed gallery, and terminates with a beautiful 
lantern and spire of the neatest construction. The 
exterior circumference of this great dome is com- 
puted to measure six hundred and twenty feet, and 
it appears so conspicuous, that it is easily discerned 
by travellers at the distance of twenty miles from 
the city of Rome. 

It would be an endless task to enumerate all the 
other ornaments and decorations of this church, 
which are so many and so great, that after viewing 
them with attention for the course of a year, new 
beauties will be discovered in the end. The pro- 
portions are so just, that nothing appears there 
long, broad, or elevated, and the enormous size is 
only perceived, when every part is examined sepa- 
rately. Entering into one of the ten chapels, 
which are in the aisles, with ten smaller domes, or 
oval cupolas corresponding to them, you find 
yourself as in a cathedral. At the upper end of 
the church, which is built in form of a Greek cross, 
the grand monument of the chair of St. Peter 
presents itself with an unparalleled majesty. The 
ornaments of it are said to have cost one hundred 
and seven thousand, five hundred and fifty-one 
Roman crowns. The four feet of it are supported 
by four gilt bronze statues, each seventeen palms 
high, of four doctors of the Church, two of the 
Latin church, St. Augustine and St. Ambrose, and 
two of the Greek church, Su John Chrysostom 
and St. Athanasius. These statues are elevated on 
four lofty pedestals of variegated marble, to such a 
height that the feet of the chair are upon a level 
with their heads. The figures of two angels of 
gilt bronze are placed on each side of the chair 
holding the keys in their hands, and above them the 
Holy Ghost is represented in the form of a dove, 
with a surrounding multitude of cherubims and 
seraphims, and the figure of grand Glory, all in 
gilt bronze, casting brilliant rays to a very conside- 
rable distance, and at times redoubling their bril- 
liancy by means of the rays of light which the 

2 a % 



Ja4 HISTORY OF TH2 

meridian sun conveys through a yellow stained 
glass window in the rear. The choice paintings by 
the most celebrated masters, the sculpture, stucco* 
and mosaic work, the great number of beautiful 
altars, and rich ornaments thereto belonging, the 
nineteen superb marble mausoleums of popes, kings, 
queens, and princes, which are erected in different 
parts of this church, the pleasing variety of fine 
marble statues and emblematical figures, represent- 
ing the different Virtues, the elegance of the new 
sacristy, which is built in the form of an octagon, 
and of the pilasters in the corridore leading to it, 
the grandeur of the ceiling curiously decorated and 
gilt, nay, the very floor paved with polished marble, 
and partly inlaid with mosaic, partly with white 
marble circles, which exactly correspond to the di- 
mensions of the different cupolas, Sec. justly excite 
admiration in every spectator of taste and judgment. 
The two holy water fountains, which are erected 
on each side of the principal nave, at a proper dis- 
tance from the middle gate and entrance, are amaz- 
ingly beautiful and grand. They are made of yel- 
low antique marble, and supported by two white 
marble statues of angels, which on close inspection 
are found to be six feet high, though they appear 
exactly proportioned, and suitable to the purpose 
for which they are designed. The drapery that 
embellishes this noble piece of sculpture, is com- 
posed of lapis lazuli. 

There are five grand gates or entrances into the 
body of the church, supported by lofty pillars of 
Oriental marble, in the Doric order, on each side. 
One of them is always closed, except in time of a 
jubilee. The folding doors of the middle gate are 
entirely of bronze, and of a prodigious height and 
size. Oil them is seen a lively representation of the 
crucifixion of St. Peter, and the decollation of St. 
Paul. Over them Christ is represented intrusting 
his flock to the care of St. Peter, and on the oppo- 
site side of the p^rand porch, the ship of Peter ap- 
pears to be tossed to and fro by the fury of the rag- 
ing billows of the sea, but still is kept above the 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 355 

water and preserved from sinking. The porch it- 
self is so spacious and magnificent, that it might be 
looked on as a noble church any where else. At 
both ends of it there are two spacious galleries, se- 
parated by iron palisadoes from the remainder of the 
porch, and in one of them is erected an equestrian 
statue of Constantine the Great, and in the other a 
statue of Charlemagne. Exclusive of these two 
apartments, the porch is two hundred and sixteen 
feet long, and forty feet wide. Including them, the 
whole length is reckoned six hundred and forty- 
eight palms. The ceiling is computed to be one 
hundred and forty-three palms high from the floor. 
It is decorated with gilt stucco, as the floor is paved 
with polished marble of various colours, and the 
wall occasionally hung with pieces of fine tapestry* 
which represent the miracles and historical passages 
of the New Testament. There is a majestic pas- 
sage from each end of the porch to the colonnade 5. 
and in the front, directly opposite to the five gates 
of the church, there are five other neat folding gates 
of iron palisadoes, with open circular tops, and a 
commodious landing place at the bottom, contigu- 
ous to a very extensive staircase of twenty -one 
marble steps, which being divided into three flights, 
and projecting in an oval figure in the middle, af- 
ford a very easy ascent to, and descent from the 
church. Over the porch there is a noble apart- 
ment of equal grandeur and magnificence, called 
the Loclgio, and beautified in the front, from one 
side to the other, with balconies, bailustrades, pilas- 
ters, and open windows with circular tops, &c. 
Over this Lodgio is raised a fine attic story, that ter- 
minates with a grand ballus trade, crowned with 
twelve lofty statues of the Twelve Apostles, which 
are ranged at a proper distance, with a beautiful 
statue of Jesus Christ in the centre. The facade of 
this so much admired pile of building is two hun- 
dred and fifty one palms high, and five hundred and 
fifty-two wide. The various pillars which adorn it 
are of a prodigious size, and one hundred and twen- 
ty-six palms in height* The spacious court, or 



25& HISTORY OF THE 

open area that interposes between it and the beauti- 
ful bridge and castle of St. Angelo, being 1230 
palms deep, contributes much to its majestic ap- 
pearance, and places it in a most agreeable point of 
view. It is neatly paved, and intersected with lines 
of white marble in the form of a star. At the up* 
per end, on the right and left side, near the steps 
leading to the portal, stand two handsome pedestals, 
on one of which is erected a statue of St. Peter hold- 
ing the keys, and on the other a statue of St. Paul 
holding a flaming sword. Toward the lower end, 
at a regular distance, on the right and left, two 
grand fountains with double basins, of a circular 
figure, one above the other, and elevated about 
twenty feet from the surface of the area, are inces- 
santly playing and emitting their waters, through a 
great number of united tubes, and to an amazing 
height, until they descend again in the form of a 
bow. A most beautiful obelisk of Egyptian granite, 
eighty feet high, is erected in the centre of the 
court, on an elegant square pedestal thirty feet high, 
surrounded with pillars, and fronted with white 
marble, with the following inscription : Christvs 
Vincii. Christ us re gnat. Chris tus rmfierat. Vicit 
Leo de tribu Juda. Ecce crucem Domini. Fugiie 
partes adverse, kc. The obelisk rests immediate* 
ly upon the backs of four rampant lions of bronze, 
and terminates above like a pyramid 8 with a large 
cross of bronze. This grand obelisk is said to have 
been originally dedicated to the Pagan gods, by the 
emperor Trajan, but was afterwards consecrated to 
Christ, by Sixtus V. 

On each side of the court there is a most majestic 
oval colonnade of three hundred and twenty columns, 
with eighty pilasters, in the Doric order, arranged 
in four rows near the two vaulted porticos of twen- 
ty-four arches which lead immediately into both 
ends of the grand porch, and which form a square 
between the obelisk and the front of the church. 
The porticos and the colonnade are covered in and 
crowned with an entablature of curious workman- 
ship, and with an elegroit ballustrade, whereon ar* 



CHITRCH OF CHRIST. 357 

erected one hundred and thirty-six elegant statues, 
twenty-four palms high. 

The church of St. Peter is but the second patri- 
archal church of Rome, that of St. John Laitran 
being the first, as an inscription on its walls imports. 
It is also amazingly grand and beautiful. It con- 
tains five naves, and is supported by three hundred . 
and thirty-five marble pillars. The sides of the 
grand nave are ornamented with twelve great 
marble statues of the Twelve Apostles, arranged 
at a regular distance, and exhibiting each one of 
the twelve articles of the creed. The patriarchal 
altar here is exceedingly beautiful, and the sculp- 
ture executed in a most masterly manner. The 
chapel of Corsini, near the grand portal, is justly 
deemed one of the richest and the most beautiful 
in the world. The principal front of this church 
is crowned with an elegant ballustrade, whereon 
are erected eleven lofty statues, that represent 
Christ with the Four Evangelists, and the six great- 
er prophets. Near this church stand the ruins of 
the famous amphitheatre, or the Cotisee, which 
contained with ease eighty thousand, and if crowd- 
ed, one hundred and fifty thousand spectators.— 
Vespasian after his triumph over Jadaea, employed 
twelve thousand captive Jews in raising this stu- 
pendous oval fabric for entertaining the people 
with shows and public exhibitions. it was com- 
pleted by Titus, and the outside of the walls w T as 
ornamented with a great number of beautiful 
columns, which the family of the Barbei ini remov- 
ed for the purpose of decorating their own palace. 
This gave occasion to that common saying : Quod 
non secerunt Barbaric fecere Barberini. The inner 
side round the area contained seats, made of vast 
polished stones, one above another, that the spec- 
tators might have a perfect view of the whole pit 
without any hinderance. The Cavea under the 
walls contained dens for the wild beasts, and dark 
dungeons for the condemned prisoners, and the 
fiorta Ubiiince, was the gate, through which the 
bodies of the slain were dragged out. The Vomitori* 



358 HISTORY OF THB 

were gates so contrived in the walls, that persons 
went in and out without being crowded. The Arena^ 
or oval pit, was strewed with sand to suck up the 
blood, and surrounded with iron rails on a ballus- 
trade about a yard frOm the lower seats, for a fence 
that the beasts might not be able to hurt the specta- 
tors. This place, which was bedewed with the blood 
of great numbers of holy martyrs, is now converted 
to a religious purpose, and called the Via Cruris > 
or the station of the holy cross, fourteen stationary 
chapels, which the faithful resort to with edifying 
piety and devotion, being erected at a regular dis- 
tance from each other, all round the interior cir- 
cumference. 

The other patriarchal Churches, and principal 
basilicas in the city are the church of the Holy 
Cross in Jerusalem, wherein part of the real cross 
of our Saviour is preserved to this day, and the 
church of St. Mary Major, both of which are 
situated within the distance of about half a mile 
from St. John Literan's. The church of St. Paul 
stands on the Ostian Road, about five miles from 
Rome ; the church of St. Sebastian on the Appian 
Road, and of SV. Laurence extra Mures* on the 
Tiburtian Road. These seven churches form the 
seven stations of Rome. 

The church of St. Paul is supported by one 
hundred and forty large and beautiful pillars, 
chiefly of white marble, taken out of Antoninus' 
baths, and from the tomb of Adrian. Some of them 
are of porphyry, some of granite. The church is 
very extensive, and contains five naves. The pa- 
triarchal altar is erected in the central nave over 
a subterraneous chapel, wherein half the relics' of 
St. Peter and Paul is kept, and under a beautiful 
pavilion, that terminates above in the form of a 
a pyramid. This altar is supported by four pillars 
of agate and prophyry. The twenty four elders, 
mentioned in the Apocalypse, with Christ at their 
head, are beautifully represented in mosaic on the 
eeiling, with a wonderful variety of ancient historical 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 359 

paintings, 8tc. The two fecades of the church of 
St. Many Major, in the Ionic and Corinthian or- 
ders, with its elegant portals, octagon domes, 
spires, belfry, ballustrades, statues, galleries, pillars, 
pilasters, basso relievos, pallisadoes, and the adja- 
cent obelisks and fountains, make a most majestic 
appearance, and inspire the beholder with sentiments 
of reverence and respect for the house of God. 
The interior of this church is most richly embellish- 
ed with gilt stucco and mosaic, with porphyry pillars 
and pilasters, with bronze statues and choice paint- 
ings. The roof is supported by thirty-eight co- 
lumns of white polished marble, and four of granite. 
The patriarchal altar, in the grand nave, is formed 
of porphyry, and the elegant square canopy over it 
is sustained by four great figures of angels, stand- 
ing on porphyry pillars. Under this altar there is a 
subterraneous chapel, adorned with a number of 
•white marble statues, and with a lively representa- 
tion of Christ in the stable and manger of Bethlehem. 
Nothing can be more magnificent than the Bor- 
ghesian, Confalon and Sixtine Chapels, which are 
in this church. The walls are incrusted with the 
richest Egyptian marble. The altars are finished 
in the highest taste. The pillars are covered with 
Oriental jasper, the pedestals are enriched with 
agate, the bases and capitals are formed of gilt 
bronze, and the table and front of the altar of lapis 
lazuli. 

The city of Rome abounds with a great number 
of other stately churches, but the church of the 
Jesuits is one of the most magnificent piles of 
building in the world, next to the Vatican, and is 
not less admired for the elegance of the architec- 
ture than for its riches, consisting in costly beauti- 
ful ornaments of gold, silver, jewels, exquisite 
paintings, statues, and carving, and a great pro- 
fusion of fine marble. Among the many chapels 
■which it contains, that of St. Ignatius is the admi- 
ration of travellers. His sacred remains lie there 
in a silver shrine under the altar, exposed to view. 
The other glittering rich ornaments of this place 



oS# HISTORY OP THE* 

seem almost to lose their lustre, when the statue of 
the saint is uncovered. It is somewhat bigger than 
the life, because raised high. Its bright shining gold, 
silver, and sparkling diamonds, especially in the 
crown of glory over the head, dazzle- the eye. It is 
surprising to hear so many in those days inveigh 
against the splendour and magnificence of the orna- 
ments of the House of God, as savouring too much 
of worldly pomp, and nourishing pride and vanity. 
On pretence of refining religion, and rendering it 
more spiritual, they cry out in the language of those 
who were filled with indignation on seeing the pious 
penitent of the Gospel pouring out a precious oint- 
ment on the head of our Lord : tl To what purpose 
" is this waste and profusion ? These valuable things 
" might be sold, and the price given to the poor." 
But those who are not ashamed to exclaim thus against 
the rich decorations that become the House of God, 
and render it a figure of heavenly Jerusalem, show 
that they are divested of all sense of piety or respect 
for God. They are generally people full of them- 
selves and of their own wit and judgment, who are 
displeased at seeing that employed for the honour of 
the Almighty, which they would wish to be their 
own property. Can any thing be conceived more 
splendid or more magnificent, than the sacred vest- 
ments used by the priests in the Old Law ? Or than 
the golden candlesticks, the lamps and goblets, the 
rich images of cherubims, the cedar altar, and tables 
covered with the purest gold, the censers and vessels 
of massive gold, Sec. which God himself commanded 
to be used in the Temple of Solomon ? Does not this 
example of God himself authorize the embellish- 
ment of places of divine worship in the New Law, 
whereof the Old Law was only a type and shadow ? 
Is it not alone sufficient to silence the enemies of re- 
ligion ? The rich decorations of Christian churches 
are so far from nourishing pride and vanity, that they 
serve to inspire the faithful with reverential awe and 
respect ; and for this reason those who have been 
moat remarkable for their profound humility and 
solid virtue, were always the most zealous for the 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 361 

splendour and magnificence of every thing relative 
to the service of God, as we learn from the history 
of all foregoing ages. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

The rise of Lutheranism in Germany ', Calvinism in 
France ) and Socinianism in Tuscany, Poland, Ifc. 

NO age, since the commencement of the Chris- 
tian aera, has every been more productive of new re- 
ligions than the sixteenth century. Martin Luther 
broke off, in the year 1517, from the communion of 
the established -Church of all Christendom, and se- 
parated himself from the great body of the faithful 
diffused all over the world. He tells us himself that 
he stood alone in the beginning, firimo solus eram, as 
if the Divine Goodness had abandoned his Church, 
and left the world in darkness, until his appearance ; 
but he no sooner sounded the trumpet of sedition, 
than ail Germany was set in a flame. He qualified 
his apostacy with the name of Reformation, and set 
out with exclaiming against errors and abuses, this 
being the usual cry of rebels against their lawful 
sovereigns. He falsely prophecied that the reign of 
popes should have an end in two years time, and 
pretended that the Church had fallen into ruin and 
desolation ; but it appeared strange, that in such a 
number of holy prelates, learned doctors and emi- 
nent saints, who had lived and died in her commu- 
nion for fifteen hundred years, no one ever perceiv- 
ed the imposture, no council ever gave information 
hereof, no father, no historian opened his mouth or 
employed his pen to decry or record ^uch pretended 
errors, till Luther made the discovery. He began 
immediately to show his contempt of the Augustines, 
the Jeroms, the Cyprians, and other ancient Fa- 
thers, revered for so many ages, though these great 
lights of antiquity were better qualified to know the 
doctrine of the primitive Church than he was, at the 
distance of fourteen hundred years ; but he vented his 
spleen against them, because he was sensible that their 
2 H 



362 HISTORY OF THE 

authority and his new religion could not stand toge- 
ther. He poured out a torrent of gross, scurrilous, 
and abusive invectives, against the most respectable 
characters; and though at first he professed an 
aversion to violence, he soon altered his maxims, 
and declared that blood was requisite for the esta- 
blishment of his gospel, and that the true children 
of God would do well if they washed their hands in 
the blood of popes, cardinals, and bishops. Strange 
-language in the mouth of a man who set up for an 
apostle ! Could the religion of Jesus Christ author- 
ize such proceedings? In particular he bent his 
virulence and rancour against the Church of Rome, 
because he knew that it was her special province to 
oppose all innovations in faith. Henry VIII. wrote 
a book against him, which he sent to Leo X. with 
ihe following distich, and for which he was styled 
Defender of the Faith : 

" Angiorum Rex, Henricus, Leo decime, mittit 
** Hoc ofius, et Jidei testem et amicitice." 

Great Leo this from Henry* s hand receive, 
As much as faith can say or friendship give. 

But Luther had the address to engage several 
other powerful princes to take part with him, being 
allured by the hopes of enjoying the church lands, 
and sharing in the rich spoils and revenues of the 
abbeys and monasteries. Frederick, elector of 
Saxony, openly declared himself his protector. He 
chew over Philip, landgrave of Hessia, by granting 
him, through a most shameful complaisance, a li- 
cense to have two wives at once, contrary to the 
express prohibition of Christ. Nay, Luther him- 
self, notwithstanding the most sacred engagements 
of his ordination and religious vows, ventured upon 
taking a wife, and married Catharine Boren, a pro- 
fessed nun, to the great scandal of his friend, Me- 
lancthon, (L. 4. Epist. 24.) and in open defiance of 
the established laws of the Church, which never 
allowed Priests or Religious to marry after receiv- 
ing Holy Orders, and making a voluntary promise 
to God to live continently, the breack of a so- 



6HURCH OF CHRIST. $63 

lemn vow of chastity being a formal violation of 
the Divine Law, expressly condemned, Deut. 23. 
and 1 Tim. 5. 12. where the Apostle, speaking of 
widows who presume to marry after having thus 
consecrated themselves to God, says, that they incur 
damnation, because they have cast off' their first faith ^ 
that is, their solemn engagement made to God. 
Hence St. Augustine, 1. de bono Vid. c. 11. affirms, 
that the breach of such a vow of chastity is worse 
than adultery. Luther's revolt was followed with a 
visible decay of Christian piety, and an increase of 
vice and immorality among all degrees of people in 
Germany. Erasmus himself, though no zealous 
advocate for the Church, could not help observing 
the general decay of piety that ensued, and the de- 
generacy of morals that was brought on by the 
change of religion, and by enfranchising men from 
the powerful curbs and penitential exercises of 
fasting, abstinence, confession, and other religious 
duties. Luther also made the same remark, and 
historians of those days tell us, that the Lu- 
theran magistrates of the illustrious city of Nurem- 
berg were so sensible hereof, that they solemnly 
petitioned the emperor Charles V. to re-establish 
auricular confession among them by an imperial 
law, as a check upon the prevailing libertinism, 
alleging, that they had learned by experience, 
that since it had been laid aside by them, their com- 
monwealth was over run with sins against justice 
and other virtues, heretofore unknown in their 
country, and that restitution for injustices com- 
mitted was scarce any longer to be heard of. The 
petition only moved the court to laughter, as if a 
human law could compel men to the confession of 
the secrets of their consciences, and as if it was to 
be expected that any attention would be paid to the 
ordinance of man by a people who disregarded the 
institution of God, as the Emperor replied. Such 
was the commencement of that fatal defection from 
the ancient faith, which afterwards tore awa^ 
many fair edifices from the rock on which they had 
stood for several centuries. In the year 1529, th© 



£64 HISTORY OF TUB 

Lutherans in Germany protested against the decree 
of the Emperor, enacted at the diet of Spire, and 
having formed an army of 72,000 men, they deso- 
lated the provinces of Suabia, Franconia, and Alsatia, 
pillaging and burning churches, destroying mo- 
nasteries and castles, and massacreing priests and 
religious. 

In the year i536, John Calvin, having relin- 
quished the ancient faith, and deserted the Church 
in which he had been baptized, ushered into France 
a new system of religion, and made Geneva the 
centre of his sect. He was an enemy to all subor- 
dination, rejected all authority, and threw off all 
cbedience to the ruling powers. Yet he required 
so implicit a submission, and so blind an obedience 
to every thing that he himself was pleased to define, 
that he caused Michael Servetus, an Unitarian, to 
be condemned and burnt alive at Geneva, in 1553, 
jby a decree of the senate, for having advanced 
some erroneous doctrine about the mysiery of the 
most Holy Trinity. It is impossible to read the 
history of Calvinism without being -shocked at the 
disorders and horrid violences committed by its 
abettors and followers in Dauphine, Gascony, Lan- 
guedoc, and other provinces. During three reigns 
France was convulsed and torn with continual fac- 
tions, civil wars, and bloody engagements. It is 
computed, that in the course of these wars twenty 
thousand churches were destroyed, nine hundred 
towns and villages burnt. Two hundred and fifty 
priests, and one hundred and twelve religious monks, 
were massacred in the province of Daupine alone. 
This made Erasmus say, that the discifiles of Luther 
end Calvin were equally as good at fighting as at dis- 
fiuting, Erasmus died in 1536, when the following 
epitaph was inscribed on his tomb : 

" Hicjacet Erasmus, qui quondam bonus erat Mux* 
44 Rodere qui solitus, roditur a Fermibus." 

Here lies a snarling biter, in his day> 
But now, in turn, to biting worms a firei?. 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 65 

About the middle of the sixteenth century there 
arose, at Sienna, in Tuscany, another new sect, 
called Socinianism, from Loelius and Faustus Soci- 
mis, the authors of it. Socinianism is a compound 
of Arianism, Macedonianism, Photinianism, and of 
the old condemned errors of Paul of Samosata, and 
of the Sabellians and Ebionites, f r which reason 
its followers are called the new Ebionites, Antitrinl* 
tarians, Unitarians, and Socinia?is. Socinianism is 
but one remove from Deism, or bare natural reli- 
gion, and its tendency is to lay aside the belief of 
the mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation, and 
to overturn the whole system of Christianity. Lu- 
ther began the work, Calvin carred it on, but 
Socinus endeavoured to undermine the very founda- 
tion, according to the following epitaph that was 
made from him : 

4C Tola quidem Babylon destruxit tecta Lutherus, 
u Muros Calvinus, sed fundament a Socinus" 

Three grand reformers fir* d with ardent zeal, 
Proud Babylon at various times assail : 
Luther, offiious haste to give a firoof 
UntiVd the building, and strififi'd off the roof; 
Calvin, with greater rage, -fiulVd down the wall £ 
Socinus raz y dfoundatio-ns, earth and all^ 

The chief and favourite principle of the Soci- 
nians is, that whatever is above reason, or is not 
yeconcileable to it, is against it, and that no mystery 
can be admitted in religion : a principle that not 
only flatters the pride of the human heart exceed- 
ingly, but likewise opens a door to endless divisions, 
and often drives the abettors of it into the most 
glaring inconsistencies and monstrous absurdities 
against reason itself. If nothing is to be allowed in 
fauh or religion, but what our reason fully com- 
prehends, will it not follow that articles of faith 
must vary in proportion to men's capacities ? More- 
over, to believe no mystery, or to admit nothing; 
above reason, is the most extravagant inconsistency* 
in man, who feels the weakness and short-sighted- 
ness of his reason in every thing, whether in ov 
£ H 2 



366 HISTORY OF THE 

about himself, and to whom the whole universe is 
in every part an enigma. It is much more incon- 
sistent in a Christian, to whom the Scriptures pre- 
sent a religion that is foundedin mystery and divine 
revelation, and that by its brightness and evidence 
dispels the mists and lays open the artful subterfuges 
of Socinianism. 

The gross errors and absurdities of pagan anti- 
quity plainly show the weakness of human reason, 
unassisted by divine revelation, and prove the ab- 
solute necessity of a revealed religion to direct us 
even in the paths of moral virtue, and to guide us 
in the search of many necessary truths; for as the 
human mind is of itself nothing but darkness, we 
stand in need of the light of divine revelation as a 
sure guide to point out to us the straight way, and 
to conduct us with safety through the dangerous 
pilgrimage of this moral life. If we forsake it, 
we lose and bewilder ourselves, how much soever 
enlightened we may suppose ourselves to be. How 
many acute philosophers, great geniuses, and 
strong reasoners, have gone astray, and run into- 
all kinds of excesses, by relying too much on the 
strength of their own reason, and pursuing their 
own speculations, without a sense of religion ? 
How many have lost sight of common sense, and 
overset and unhinged their understanding, by too 
intense an application to things beyond their sphere? 
How many have mistaken the wild fancies of 
their brain for right reason ? Cicero justly re- 
marks, that nothing can be invented ever so ab- 
surd or monstrous, which has not been said by some 
©f the ancient philosophers, who, like the Socinians 
of those days, boasted mightily of making reason, 
their only guide, St. Augustine also tells us, that 
the Manicheans, by relying too much on the strength 
of their own reason, whilst they derided the simpli- 
city of the true believers, became at length so ab- 
surd as to teach, that when a fig-tree was plucked 
and eaten, both it and its mother tree wept with mil- 
ky tears, and that particles of Deity, imprisoned m 
the fruit, were restored to liberty, 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. ZG7 

The root of such abuses is pride and a secret 
vanity, self-sufficiency or complacency, that men 
easily entertain in the opinion of their own know- 
ledge or penetration, and that makes them over-rate 
their imaginary perfections and superior abilities. 
Nay, pride alone has sometimes made men forget 
that they were men, and has even raised them to 
the extravagant presumption of claiming divine ho- 
nours, as we read of Alexander, the celebrated 
Macedonian conqueror, and of several emperors 
of ancient Babylon and Rome. Sound philosophy 
demonstrates, that as there is nothing more certain 
than that there is a God, so nothing is more certain 
than that there must be a religion, and a revealed 
religion, which has God for its author ; for there 
is no such thing, and no such thing can be, as a 
natural religion. Natural religion would be that 
where reason alone would dictate to man the homage 
and worship that the Deity demands of him. But 
his natural lights do not reach so far, as the Deists 
have been forced to acknowledge. Man cannot 
attain by his reason only to the free designs which 
God has over him ; he cannot discover what his 
destination is, or how he is to appease God when 
he has offended him. He must be taught these du- 
ties by a revealed religion. It is it that makes 
known to him the state in which he was born, the 
cause of the great ignorance of his mind, and of 
the deep-rooted corruption of his heart. It is it, 
that points out the source of his spiritual maladies, 
and applies to them effectual remedies. It is the 
privilege of religion only to make mankind good and 
happy. It is it that gives both light and strength. 
It is it that illuminates the understanding, rectifies 
the will, regulates the heart, stems the tide of men's 
passions, furnishes most powerful motives of virtue, 
and sovereign preservatives against vice. (See fi. 
43, tsV.) Philosophy or human reason is insuffi- 
cient, and too weak to maintain order, either in pub- 
lic or domestic life. If the heart be corrupted, it 
will scarce scruple any thing that will serve a man's 
ambition or interest. Refinement on reason will in 



368 HISTORY OF TEE 

this ease contribute only to refine upon the means* 
of gratifying his darling passions, whereas, on th© 
contrary, those who act under the influence of reli- 
gion, are steady in the disinterested pursuit of every 
virtue, and in the discharge of every duty they owe 
their king and country, their families and them- 
selves. In short, religion alone is the sacred band 
of justice and civil society in the present life. The 
safety and happiness of all society is founded upon 
it. He who, with Hobbes, so far degrades human 
reason as to reduce virtue to an ideal beauty, and 
an empty name, or who laughs religion and the law 
of God out of doors, is of all others the most dan- 
gerous enemy to mankind, capable of every mis- 
chief* It is safer to live among lions and tygers, 
than among men of this description ; for unless re- 
ligion bind a man in his conscience, the general 
laws of nations, and those of particular states, are* 
too weak a restraint upon him, and lose their force.. 
His heart being open to every crime, he will be- 
come so far the slave of his passions as to be ready 
to commit every advantageous villany to which he is 
prompted, whenever he can do it with secrecy and 
impunity. 

The followers of Socinus, particularly in Poland 
and Transylvania, disagreed so much among them- 
selves, that they were at length divided into about 
fifty different sects, but were all known by the ge- 
neral name of Unitarians. The refinement of false 
philosophy, destructive at once both of religion and 
morality, diffused itself with the rapidity of an in- 
undation. Free-thinking grew apace. Some un- 
easy under any restraint, and extending what they 
called universal charity to Turks, Jews, and Pa- 
gans, declared themselves indifferent to every form 
of doctrine and worship, and were styled Latitudi- 
narianS) because they allowed a latitude that was 
calculated to indulge human pride, and to gratify 
the inclinations of the heart. Others, contented, 
with the simple belief of a God, renounced all 
divine revelation, and were denominated Deists £ 
whilst others sunk into mere materialism, and be- 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 369 

tieved no future state at all. Brandt, the Eelgic 
historian, relates, that Hubert Dovehouse, a pa- 
rish priest at Utrecht, in those days of innovation, 
to conform to his flock, in which some were Catho- 
lics, some Calvinists, professed himself of both re- 
ligions at once, and first said Mass to the Catholics 
— then they going out, and the Calvinists coming 
into the Church, he immediately began to read to 
them their new liturgy. The principles of such 
men would allow them to sacrifice both to the true 
God and to Baal, and would induce them to com- 
mend the false religion of Redwalcl, king of the 
East Saxons, who had in the same church or tem- 
ple, one altar erected to Christ, for the celebration 
of the divine mysteries and another lesser, on 
which he offered victims to the idols of his an- 
cestors. 

The disciples of Luther and Calvin were also divi- 
ded and subdivided into different sects, following 
different heads. Very soon the same principle 
which had separated them from the society of the 
faithful, formed new divibions in their own bosom. 
Doctors trained up in their school, turned against 
them the same arms which they themselves had 
made use of against the ancient Church, and their 
own children had no more respect for them than 
they had shown to their mother. They scarce 
agreed in any other thing but their endeavours to 
destroy the faith, in which their predecessors, for 
so many ages, had wrought their salvation. They 
withdrew themselves from the jurisdiction of the 
Church militant, by laying aside its authority ; 
they separated from the Church suffering, by re- 
jecting prayers for the souls in purgatory ; and 
from the Church triumphant, by refusing to invoke 
the intercession of the saints and by destroying 
their shrines and sacred relics. Thus it was that 
they revived the old condemned errors for which 
Aerius, a priest of Sebastia — Jovinian, a monk of 
Milan, called by St. Jerom the Christian Epicure — - 
and Vigilantius, a priest of Barcelona, had been 
ranked amongst the heretics of the fourth and fifth 



3f® HISTORY OF THE 

centuries. They exploded fasting and other re* 
ligious duties, as encroachments and restraints on 
Christian liberty. They preached down celibacy 
anda state of virginity, in direct opposition to the 
doctrine and advice of St. Paul, i Cor. 7. of living, 
as he did, in a state of perpetual continency. They 
banished the painful restrictions of penance and mor- 
tification, though perfectly conformable to the max- 
ims and spirit of the Gospel. They opened a spa- 
cious lawn and smooth path to Heaven, strewed with 
roses, instead of the narrow, thorny road of the cross. 
In short, they levelled all the fences which venera- 
ble antiquity had erected, reduced faith to a mere 
skeleton, and dogmatized that it alone was sufficient 
for salvation. 

To such a degree prevailed the spirit of dogma- 
tizing and forming new creeds in those days, that 
the cities and villages, camps, houses, and pulpits, 
were filled with a numerous tribe of new gospel- 
lers. Each of them pretended that he had as good a 
right as Luther and Calvin to interpret the Bible ac- 
cording to his own fancy ; ami thus, like the Arians 
and Pelagians, they made a handle of the best of 
books to lead the poor deluded people astray? and to 
pass their own notions upon them for divine truths. 
" Aristarchus formerly could scarce find seven wise 
« men in Greece," as Dr. Walton, a Protestant wri- 
ter, says in his preface to Polyglott, " but then scarce 
41 were to be found so many idiots ; for all were doc- 
" tors, all were divinely learned ; and there was not 
;; so much as the meanest fanatic, who did not give 
" his own dream for the word of God." Like the 
ancient sectaries, they all boasted they had Scripture 
on their side, and imagined that they understood it 
beuer than all the holy Fathers, Doctors, and Pastors 
of the preceding ages. But as they had no certain 
standard to go by, and were not limited by any set- 
tled principle, but depended upon the arbitrary de- 
termination of their own private judgment, it is no 
wonder that they split into an amazing number of 
jarring opinions and contradictory systems, which 
were not to be found in the genuine sources of truth. 



CKVRCH OF CHRIST. 371 

Staphylus reckons seven opposite expositions of thct 
one text, This is my Body, and says that the Luthe- 
ran religion was, within a few years after its birth, 
divided into fifty sects. — Apol. fol. 138. The num- 
ber of confessions of faith that were drawn up by 
them, demonstrates the instability of their doctrine, 
as Bossuet, the bishop of Meaux, proves, in his 
His Lory of Variations, 

Sleidan relates, b. 10. that John of Leyden, by 
reading the Bible, and preaching his whims, made 
himself king of Munster, and introduced polygamy. 
A woman in that city, by reading the book of Ju- 
dith, heated her imagination to that degree, that 
she attempted to kill the bishop of Munster, but 
perished herself. Brandt, in his History of the 
Low Countries, tells us, that David of Delft said 
to his companion, " Come, dost thou not see how 
" men raise themselves by turning new preachers ? 
" How they grow rich and powerful at an easy 
" rate ? We have read the Bible : let us set up." 
He did so, and made a great figure at Basil, till he 
died there. Peter Martyr, Ochinus, Osiander, Zu- 
inglius, Carlostadius, (Ecolampadius, &c. thought 
themselves authorized to commence refiners of re- 
ligion, and preached up a hitherto unheard-of evan- 
gelical liberty. Philip Melancthon framed the Con- 
fession of Aug burg in the year 1530, and left the fol- 
lowing epitaph to be inscribed on his tomb ; 

" Iste brevis tumulus miseri tenet ossa Philififif*, 
" Qui qualisfuerit, nescio, talis erit." 

This slender pile within its sfiace contains, 
Poor Philip's mortal corse and sad remains* 
His future state I neither know nor see; 
But as he was, such ever he shall be* 

Nicholas Stork and Thomas Muncer gave birth 
to the Anabaptists, who in a short time split into at 
least thirty-two different sects. John Knox, who 
died in 1572, was author of the Puritans. John 
Arminius, of Amsterdam, became the leader of a 
party, called the Arminians. who revived the errors 
of the Pelagians, and were opposed by another 



373 history or the 

party, called Gomarists, from Gomarus, a pra- 
lessor of theology at Leyden. Some called them- 
selves Conformists, others Nonconformists; some 
were styled Remonstrants, others Contra remon- 
strants; some independent '$, others Moravians; some 
Episcopalians, others Presbyterians ; some were 
named Brownists, others Hutchmsonians; some Sa- 
cramentarians, others Ubiquitariazis. Some in short 
obtained the appellation of Huguenots, particularly 
in several provinces of France, where Theodorus Be- 
zz dogmatized after the death of Calvin. 

In the interim, the Church, like unto a sorrowful 
mother, sat bewailing the loss of so many children, 
whom she had baptized and reared in her bosom. 
She beheld with regret and concern a very consider- 
able portion of her vineyard lopped off in some re- 
spectable countries of Europe, which for upwards 
of nine hundred years had been conspicuous in the 
Christian world for the orthodoxy of their belief, 
and for having sent a multitude of saints to Heaven. 
Never did she meet with a greater trial ; never was 
there a more dreadful storm raised against her, since 
the days of Arianism, than at this remarkable period. 
The raging waves of error and libertinism swelled so 
high, and with such violence, as to seem to threaten 
the world with a general deluge ; but he who has set 
certain bounds to the sea, and who commands the winds 
and the waves, did not abandon the ship of Peter, but 
stood constantly at the helm, to preserve it from the 
danger of sinking or of being wrecked, and to pilot 
it safe into port. For his own wise reasons he suffer- 
ed it to be agitated for a while by the most violent 
tempests, but in the end he made it rise triumphant- 
ly, like Noah's Ark, above the raging billows, that it 
might carry salvation to the extremities of the earth. 
Hitherto shalt thou come, and shalt go no further^ 
and here thou shalt break thy swelling waves. Job 
c. 38. v. 11. The billows may rage and foam, but 
the rock stands firm, whilst they dash and spend 
themselves against it to no purpose. 

In effect, never was the protection of God more 
visible in supporting that building which Christ had 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 3f3 

founded upon an immoveable bulwark. It was so 
far from being overthrown or destroyed by the va- 
rious attacks levelled at it in those days, that the 
breaches and losses it sustained were most amply 
repaired. Such is the general plan and (Economy 
that Divine Providence seems to follow in the go- 
vernment of the Church of Christ. When through 
his unsearchable judgments he permits any pajt 
of it to be wrested from him by infidelity, or when in 
his anger he withdraws the gift of faith from one 
nation, he usually gives it to another, and retrieves 
the loss by making new conquests. He enlarges 
his spiritual dominions elsewhere, and repairs the 
breaches by the conversion and accession of much 
larger regions to the pale of his Church. If the 
Church therefore had the affliction to behold some 
countries cut off from her communion in the six- 
teenth century, she likewise had the consolation to 
see other nations substituted in their place ; so that 
the lopping off of some of her branches served 
only to make her, like unto a great Tree, shoot 
forth fresh branches, and produce more excellent 
fruit. The discovery of the new world and fourth 
part of the earth, by Christopher Columbus, a na- 
tive of Leghorn, in the year 1492, and by Ame- 
ricus Vespusius, a Florentine, in the year 149T, 
opened a door to carry the Gospel into those vast 
regions, and immense tracts of land, where innu- 
merable multitudes embraced the Catholic commun- 
ion in the sixteenth century. It was in this cen- 
tury that St. Francis Xaverius, the apostle of 
the Indies, carried the light of the Gospel to the 
coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, -to Travancer 
and the fisheries in the East Indies, to the Molucca 
islands, and the islands Del Moro, and to the king- 
dom of Japan, where he planted the faith of Christ 
and converted many hundred thousands of souls. 
See his Life Englished by Dryden. The Church of 
Japan, about the year 1582, counted no less than 
six hundred thousand Christians, and stood for a 
long time the shock of the most violent persecutions, 
in which innumerable martyrs suffered wi:h a pietv 
2 I 



S74 HISTtRY OF THE 

and constancy, not unworthy the primitive ages. 
In the year 1590, no fewer than 20,000 were put 
to death for the faith. It was at this period also 
that numbers of pious missionaries, burning with 
zeal for the glory of God, and for the salvation of 
souls, announced the faith with prodigious success 
in the great empire of China, in Brazil, Terra Firma, 
Kew Granada, New Andaluzia, Popayan, Paraguay, 
and in the Philippine islands, where they civilized 
millions of barbarians, and gained over innumerable 
souls to the Lord. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

The Church of the Seventeenth Century, 

THE Apostolic succession of chief pastors in 
the chair of St. Peter was continued in this age 
by Leo XI. who sat but twenty days. Paul V. 
succeeded him on the 16th of May, 1605, and 
died on the 28th of January, 1621, in the sixteenth 
year of his pontificate. Gregory XV. was elect- 
ed on the 9th of February, 1621, and died on the 
8th of July, 1623. Urban VIII. was chosen on 
the 6th of August, the same year, and after sitting 
twenty-one years, died on the 29th of July, in 1644. 
Innocent X. was raised to the pontificate on the 15th 
of September, the same year, and died on the 7th 
of January, 1655. Alexander VII. sat from the 
7th of April, the same year, till the 22d of May, 
1667. Clement IX. was chosen on the 20th of 
June, same year, and died on the 9th of December, 
1669. Clement X. being elected after him, died 
•n the 22d of July, in 1676. Innocent XI. sat from 
the 21st of September, same year, till the 12th of 
August, 1689. Alexander VIII. sat from the 6th 
of October, same year, till the 1st of February, 
1691, and Innocent XII. from the 12th of July, same 
year, till the 27th of September, 1700. 

The succession of saints was kept up in this age 
by St. Francis of Sales, bishop of Geneva, St. 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 375 

' Vincent of Paul, founder of the Lazarites or fa- 
thers of the mission, St. Camillus of Lellis, foun- 
der of the religious order for serving the sick and 
assisting the faithful at their death, St. Fidelis of 
Sigmaringen, martyr, St. Joseph of Leonissa, St. 
Francis Solano, Apostolic preacher in Peru, St. 
Alphonsus Thuribius Archbishop of Lima, St. 
Joseph Calasanctius, founder of the regular clergy 
of the Schola fii<e y or pious schools, St. John 
Francis Regis, St. Jane Frances de Chantal, St* 
Mary Magdalen of Pazzis, St. Rose of Lima, the 
capital of Peru, with many others, who died in the 
sweet odour of sanctity. See Dr. A. Butler, torn. 
1. 6, 7, and 8. Even in the most degenerate ages, 
when the true maxims of the Gospel seem almost 
obliterated among the generality of those who 
profess it, God fails not, for the glory of his holy 
name, to raise to himself faithful ministers and 
vessels of election, whom he replenishes with his 
gifts and graces, that they may fee qualified to re- 
vive the spirit of religion in others, and to conduct 
them both by word and example in the paths of he- 
roic virtue. One of these instruments of the divine 
mercy was St. Francis of Sales. To read the lives 
of the saints, and to consider their edifying actions 
in order to imbibe their spirit and quicken his own 
soul in the practice of piety, was an exercise in 
which from his youthful days he found singular com- 
fort and delight, and a great help to devotion. Like 
the industrious bee. which sucks honey from every 
flower, he endeavoured to learn from the life of 
every saint some new practice of virtue, and to 
treasure up in his mind some new maxim of an in- 
terior life. By reading the golden book composed 
by Laurence Scufioli, entitled the Spiritual Combat, 
he conceived the most ardent desire of Christian 
perfection. He carried it fifteen years in his pocket, 
read something of it every day, always with fresh 
profit, as he assures us, and strongly recommends 
it to others in several of his letters. This book ran 
through near fifty editions, before the death of the 
author, which happened in the year 1610. Herein 



$76 HISTORY OF THE 

are laid down the best remedies against all vices* 
and the most perfect maxims of an interior life, in 
a clear concise style, which in the original Italian 
breathes the most affecting sincere simplicity, hu- 
mility, and piety. A spiritual life is here proved to 
be founded in perfect self-denial, and the most sin- 
cere sentiments of humility and distrust in our- 
selves on one side, and on the other in an entire 
confidence in God, and profound sense of his good- 
ness, love, and mercy. St. Francis was naturally 
of a hasty and passionate temper, wherefore, from 
his youth he made meekness his favourite virtue, 
and studied and practised that important lesson of 
his Dnine Redeemer, Learn from me to be meek and 
humble of hearty to such perfection as to convert 
his predominant passion into his characteristical vir- 
tue. When he was promoted to holy orders, and 
consecrated bishop of Geneva, he studied as much 
at the foot of the crucifix as, in books, being per- 
suaded that the essential quality of an ecclesiastic and 
preacher of the Gospel is to be a man of prayer. 
His sermons were accompanied with incredible suc- 
cess. He is said to have converted no less than 
seventy-two thousand Calvinists, which wonderful 
conversions they ascribed principally to his meek- 
ness and humility, and the unction with winch he 
spoke from the abundance of his own heart, and af- 
fected the hearts of his hearers. 

The writings of St. Francis breathe that meek- 
ness and divine love with which his heart was fill- 
ed, and are an inestimable treasure of moving in- 
structions, Suitable to all sorts of persons and cir- 
cumstances. His incomparable bock r called The 
Introduction to a Devout Life, has been translated 
into all the Languages of Europe. Queen Mary 
of Medicis, sent it richly bound and adorned with 
jewels to James I. of England, who was so won- 
derfully taken with it, that he expressed a great de- 
sire to see the author. This being told to Francis, 
he cried out, " Ah, who will give me the ivi?ig$ of a 
" dove ? and I willfy to the king, into that great 
%i island, formerly the country of saints, but now 



CHURCH OF CHRtST. 377 

" overwhelmed with the darkness of error. If the 
" Duke will permit me, I will arise and go to that 
" great Ninive : I will speak to the king, and will 
" announce to him, with the hazard of my life, the 
" word of the Lord. 5 * In effect he solicited the 
duke of Savoy's consent, but could never obtain it. 
Viilars, the archbishop of Vienna, wrote to Sto 
Francis, that this book charmed, inflamed, and put 
him in raptures, as often as he opened any part of 
it. The like applause and commendations were re- 
ceived from all parts. Yet a certain preacher had 
the rashness and presumption to declaim bitterly 
against this book in a public sermon. He even cut 
k in pieces, and burnt it in the very pulpit, as if it 
had allowed of scurrilous jests, and approved of 
gambling, balls, and comedies, which was very far 
from the Saint's doctrine. Nature, indeed, stands 
in need of relaxation for the exercise of the body, 
and unbending of the mind, but to make a round of 
trifling amusements, slothful games, and idle visits 
the business of life, is, indeed, to degrade the digni- 
ty of a rational being. Games at cards, the modish 
diversion of this age, first invented at the French 
court in the fourteenth century, and consisting of 
military allusions to the combats of chivalry, and to 
the persons and transactions of that age, fall under 
the censure of games of hazard, when chance is 
chiefly predominant in them. They can only be 
tolerated or allowed when dexterity and skill pre- 
vail, and when the play is not deep, and there is no 
danger either of losing much of our precious time 
at them, or of contracting an attachment and pas- 
sion for gaming. St. Peter Damian severely rebuk- 
ed the bishop of Florence for playing a game of 
ehess, and the prelate acknowledging the amuse- 
ment faulty in a man of his character, who should 
be better employed in labouring for the salvation cf 
many souls redeemed by the blood of Christ, and 
perishing for want of zealous workmen in the vine- 
yard, recited the Psalter three times by way of pe~ 
nance. 

SU Camillus of Lellis had in his youth followed 
% I % 



373 HISTORY OF 7 

a military life, and contracted so violent a pas., 
for cards and gaming, that he was at length reduced 
to the necessity of driving an ass for a subsistence. 
He was insensible of the evils attending gaming, 
till distress compelled him to open his eyes and be- 
wail his folly. He was then convinced that all 
playing even at lawful games for exorbitant sums, 
and absolutely all games of hazard for considerable 
sums, are forbidden by the law of nature. The 
imperial laws, the civil laws of all Christian or 
civilized nations, and the canons of the Church 
likewise forbid them. Aristotle himself, 1. 4. Ethic. 
c. 1. places gamesters in the same class with high- 
way-men and plunderers. No contract is justifiable 
in which neither reason nor proportion is observed. 
Nor can it be consistent with the natural law of jus- 
tice, for a man to stake any sum on blind chance, 
or to expose without a reasonable equivalent or ne- 
cessity, so much of his own or his antagonist's 
money, that the loss would notably distress himself 
or any other person. Many other evils are inse- 
parable from a spirit of gaming. It springs from 
avarice, rejoices in the loss of others, and is the 
source and immediate occasion of several other 
vices. A passion for it unsettles, enervates and 
oebases the mind, unhinges the whole frame of the 
soul, and generates a strong aversion to business. 
One of the best remedies for it, is to give whatever 
is won to the poor. These considerations com- 
pleted the conversion of Camillus. Having de- 
plored his past indolent, unthinking life, and be- 
ing perfectly dead to self-love, he embraced a pe- 
nitential course, and laid the foundation of a cha- 
ritable congregation for serving the sick in prisons 
and hospitals, even those infected with the plague. 
His attention to every circumstance relating to the 
care of dying persons, made him soon discover, that 
many were buried alive, of which Cicateilo relates 
several examples, 1. 2. c. 1. p. 446. particularly 
of one buried in a vault, who was found walking 
about in it, when the next corpse was brought to 
be there interred. Hence the saint ordered his reli- 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 37*9 

gious to continue the prayers for souls yet in their 
agony for a quarter of an hour after they seem to 
have drawn their last breath, and not to suffer their 
faces to be covered so soon as is usual, by which 
means those that are not dead are stifled. This 
precaution is most necessary in cases of drowning, 
apoplexies, and such accidents and distempers, 
which arise from mere obstructions, or some sudden 
revolutions of humours. Boerhaave, Bruhier, and 
some other eminent physicians and surgeons in 
France and Germany, have demonstrated by many 
undoubted examples of persons who have recovered 
long after they had appeared to have been dead, 
that where the person is not dead, an entire cessa- 
tion of breathing, and of the circulation of the blood, 
may happen for some time, by a total obstruction in 
the organical movements of the springs and fluids 
of the whole body, which obstructions may some- 
times be afterwards removed and the vital functions 
restored. Hence the soul is not to be presumed to 
leave the body in the act of dying, but at the mo- 
ment in which some organ or part of the body 
absolutely essential to life, is irreparably decayed or 
destroyed. And for this reason, these authors in- 
sist, that no corpse should be allowed to be buried, 
or its face close covered, before some evident symp- 
tom or certain proof of putrefaction commenced, 
appears sensible, and for this they assign as usually 
one of the first marks, if the lower jaw being 
stirred, does not restore itself, the spring of the 
■muscles being lost by putrefaction. The Romans 
usually kept the bodies of the dead eight days, and 
before they burnt or interred them, practised a ce- 
remony of often calling upon them by their names, 
which, though trivial in itself, was of importance to 
ascertain publicly the death of the person. 

This age was remarkable for the conversion of 
several great personages. The son of the emperor 
of the Turks was converted and baptized in the year 
1621. The eldest son of the envpcror of China, 
with , his mother, was converted in 1646* The 
king of Tunis was baptized the same year. The 



38t HlftTOttY OF THE 

king of Monomotapa in Africa was baptized in 1652. 
The eldest son of the emperor of Morocco was 
baptized in 1667. Christina queen of Sweden em- 
braced the Catholic religion in 1656. Wolfangus 
William, duke of Neoborough, was converted in 1 6 14. 
Christianus Augustus, the elector palatine, and his 
sisters, were converted in 1655. The kingdom of 
Christ was likewise considerably extended in Ton- 
quin, in the Marian islands, on the coasts of Zanque- 
bar, in Canada and New Mexico, in Chili, and other 
parts of South America. 

No general council was held, though several 
synods and congregations were assembled for the 
regulation of ecclesiastical discipline, the reforma- 
tion of morals, and for settling the school disputes 
between the Dominicans and Jesuits on the grace 
of God, or de Auxiliis. The errors that arose 
were suppressed by the authority of the Apostolic 
see, with the concurrence of the great body of 
bishops throughout the Church, acquiescing in its 
decisions, which carries with it the same authority 
as a general council. In the year 1567, Pius V. 
had condemned seventy-six propositions, under the 
name of Michael Baius, doctor and professor of 
divinity at Lou vain, which contained a new doctrine 
concerning the grace conferred on man in the two 
states before and after Adam's fall, and some other 
speculative points. Baius himself solemnly revoked 
and sincerely condemned his errors, in 1580, at 
Louvain, in the presence of Francis Toletus, legate 
to Gregory XIII. on which occasion it was said of 
him : Baio nihil doctius, Baio nihil humilius. No- 
thing more learned than Baius* Nothing more humble 
than Baius. He said with the truly humble, and 
truly great Augustine, Err are fiossum y hareticus non 
ero. Cornelius Jansenius, bishop of Ipres, and 
John Verger, director of the nuns of Port-Royal, 
commonly called Abbe de St. Cyran, concerted a 
plan of a new system of doctrine, concerning divine 
grace, founded, in part, upon some of the con- 
demned errors of Baius, and this system Jansenius 
endeavoured to e&tablish, in a book, which, from 



CHtfRCH OF CHRIST. 381 

St. Augustine, the great doctor of grace, he enti- 
tled, .Augus tinu s, and which he never published, 
having died of a pestilence in 1638, declaring, that 
he submitted his work to the judgment of the Church. 
Fromond, another Louvanian divine, polished the 
style of this book, and put it in the press, and Ver- 
ger became a most strenuous advocate for the doc- 
trine it contained. The book was condemned by 
Urban VIII. in 1641, and in 1653, Innocent X. 
censured five propositions, to which the errors of 
Jansenism were principally reduced. In 1656, 
Alexander VII. confirmed those decrees, and in 
1665 approved the formulary for receiving and 
subscribing them. The Jansenian heresy is down 
right Predestinarianism, than which no doctrine can 
be imagined more monstrous and absurd. In the 
year 1671, Paschasius Quenel, a French ora- 
torian, published his book of Moral Reflections on 
The Gospels, which he afterwards augmented, and 
added like reflections on the rest of the New Testa- 
ment. In this work he craftily insinuated the er- 
rors of Jansenius, and a contempt of the censures 
of the Church. The fanaticism of Quietism was 
broached by Michael Moiinos, a Spanish pries*, 
and false mystic, who in his book, entitled The Spi- 
ritual Guide, endeavoured to establish a system of 
perfect contemplation, inaction, and inattention, 
which he calls Quiet, and in which he teaches that 
the soul desires nothing, not even salvation, and 
fears nothing, not even hell itself. Innocent XI. 
in 1687, condemned sixty-eight propositions, ex- 
tracted from this book, as respectively heretical, 
scandalous, and blasphemous. , Semi-Quietism was 
for some time patronised by the great Fenelon, 
archbishep of Cambray, who having in some mea- 
sure undertaken the patronage of the writings of 
the famous Madam Guyon, published a book, en- 
titled the Maxims of the Saints, in which a kind of 
Semi-Quietism was advanced. This book, with 
twenty-three rash propositions, extracted out of it, 
was condemned by Innocent XII. in 1699, on the 
twelfth of March, and on the ninth of April feK 



382 HISTORY ©F THE 

lowing, by the author himself, who closed his eyes 
to all the glimmerings of human understanding, to 
seek truth in the obedient simplicity of faith. By 
this submission, he vanquished and triumphed over 
his defeat itself. 

This century produced innumerable ecclesiasti- 
cal writers. Some of the most celebrated were 
cardinals Baronius, Bellarmin, Perron, Pallavicini, 
Norris, de Laurae, and D'Aguirre, cardinal Bona, 
Christianus Lupus, Lanuza, Launoius, Bossuet, 
bishop of Meaux, Lambert Le Drou, Gavardi, 
Estius, Sylvius, Tirinus, A. Lapide, cardinal de 
Berulle, Spondanus, Pontas, Calmet, Bollandus, 
Vazquez, Suarez, Angelus Rocca, Van Espen, 
Bartholomew de las Casas, Canisius, Mcnochius, 
Gonet, Contensonius, Sec. 

In the year 1655, Isaac Peyrerius, a Calvin- 
ist of Bourdeaux, fabricated the fabulous system of 
the Pre-adamites, but he abjured his error, along 
with Calvinism, and sent the treatise he had written 
■on this subject to a certain friend, with the follow- 
ing verse of Ovid, the word urbem being changed 
into igne?n. 

Fade nee znvideo, sine me liber ib is in ignem. 

In the same year, 1655, commenced the sect of 
Quakers, so called from their quaking or trembling. 
Like other sectaries, they said they had Scripture 
in their favour, and claimed an equal right to in- 
terpret it, according to their own private judgment. 
By the same rule, every illiterate man or woman 
might begin a new religion, and warrant it, by 
quoting the Sacred Text, and setting up for a bet- 
ter judge of its meaning than the most able divine. 
An Arian might say, that scripture is on his side, 
and a Pelagian would make it speak Pelagianism, 
and it would be impossible to convince either the 
one or the other by Scripture alone. The Quakers* 
were set up under the usurpation of Oliver Crom- 
well, by George Fox, an Anabaptist Shoemaker, 
and by James Nailor, a Quarter-master of Lambert's 
regiment, in Cromwell's army. The author of the 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 3£3 

Classical Dictionary relates, that in 1656, James 
Nailor rode into Bristol, a man and a woman hold- 
ing the reins of his horse, whilst some others follow- 
ed him, singing, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of 
Sabaoth. Being seized by the magistrates, and tried 
and condemned as a seducer of the people, his 
tongue was bored with an hot Iron, and his fore- 
head was marked with a B, signifying Blasphemer. 
In the year 1670, Benedict Spinosa, an apostate at 
Amsterdam, published an impious book in support 
of Atheism, wherein he was followed by Lucilius 
Vanini, and Mathias Kunzen, &c. \ 

About the beginning of this century the Turks 
were several times defeated in Hungary. In 1611, 
Sigismund III. gained a signal victory over their 
army, consisting of two hundred and ninety-two 
thousand men, twenty-five thousand of them being 
killed in one battle, and sixty thousand in different 
engagements. Nine hundred thousand Moors were 
ordered to depart out of Spain in 1610, under the 
reign of Philip III. In 1669, the isle of Crete was 
subdued by the Turks, after a struggle of twenty- 
four years, and a siege of twenty-eight months, and 
twenty-seven days. One hundred and fifty thou- 
sand Turks and thirty thousand Christians perished 
in the war of Crete. In the year 1683, under the 
reign of the emperor Leopold, one hundred and 
fifty thousand Turks, in conjunction with an army 
of forty thousand Hungarians, under the command 
of Count Tekeli, laid siege to Vienna, John So- 
bieski, king of Poland, marched against them with 
expedition, at the head of twenty-four thousand 
chosen men, and attacked them on the twelfth day 
of September. The whole Turkish army fled in 
the utmost disorder, and left behind them all their 
artillery, consisting of one hundred and four score 
heavy pieces of ordnance. John Sobieski having 
found immense treasures and riches in the camp 
of the Turks, wrote to his queen, that the Grand 
Vizir had made him that day his sole executor. 



384 HISTORY OF THE 

CHAPTER XXXVIil. 

The Church of the Eighteenth Century* 

THE succession of chief pastors in the Apos- 
tolic see has been kept up in this age bv Clement 
XI. Innocent XIII. Benedict XIII. Clement XII. 
Benedict XIV. Clement XIII. Clement XIV. and 
Pius VI. 

Clement XI. was elected on the 23d of Novem- 
ber, 1700. He published the Constitution VU 
neam Domini against the Jansenists in the year 
1705, condemned Quenel's book of Moral Reflec- 
tions in 1708; and 1713, by the Constitution 
UnigenituS) censured one hundred and one propo- 
sitions extracted from it. He died in the twenty-first 
year of his pontificate. Innocent XIII. succeeded 
him and held the pontificate two years and near ten 
months. Benedict XIII. a man of great piety, 
governed the church from the 29th of May 1724, 
till the 21st of -February, 1730, and Clement XII. 
from the 3d of July, the same year, till the 6th of 
February, 1740. Benedict XIV. a Pontiff renown- 
ed for his profound erudition and wisdom, held the 
chair of St. Peter from the 17th of August, 1740, 
till the 3d of May, 1758, and Clement XIII. from 
the 6th of July, 1758, till the 2d of February, 1769. 
His successor, Clement XIV. who suppressed the 
©rder of the Jesuits in the year 1773, governed the 
church from the 19th of May, 1769, till the 22d of 
September, 1774. On his demise, Pius VI. the pre- 
sent pontiff, was elected the 15th of February, 1775, 
and has already filled the apostolic chair near twen- 
ty years. With him we shall here close the cata- 
logue of Popes, wherein it is to be observed, that 
not one single Pope has ever broke off from the line 
of succession since the days of the Apostles, but all 
of them have continued on in the same communion, 
and governed each in his turn the church which he 
found established before him. Thus we have a 
regular chain of head Pastors ; — a chain, whose 
links are closely joined, and hang one to the 



CHURCH OF CHHIST- 385 

other from the first to the last, so that it is not more 
difficult to prove, by counting back from the pre- 
sent Pope through the catalogue of his predecessors, 
that Pius VI. is a Successor of St. Peter, the first 
Pope and bishop of Rome, than it is to prove thai 
our gracious Sovereign George III. is a successor 
of the first King who founded the English Mo- 
narchy. What consolation must it give to the faith- 
ful ! What conviction 1 to find that from the chief 
Pastor, who at this day fills the first see of the 
Church, they can go back without interruption, 
and trace their religion in a direct line up to St. 
Peter, to whom Christ (John 21. 15.) committed 
the care of feeding his Lambs and his Sheep, that 
is, his entire flock. Nay, what is more ; the 
Church of Christ, taking up here the succession of 
the ancient people of God, and resuming the high 
Priests that served under the old Law, finds her- 
self united to Aaron and Moses, from whom she 
ascends to the Patriarchs and Prophets, and goes 
up to the very origin of the world i What progres- 
sion ! what tradition ! what a wonderful series and 
concatenation ! what greater authority can there be 
than that, which centres in itself the authority of 
all preceding ages, and the ancient traditions of 
mankind up to the creation itself? Should we any 
longer wonder that God proposes to our belief so 
many mysteries, so worthy of him, and at the 
same time impenetrable to human understanding I 
Should we not rather wonder that the Catholic 
faith, being built upon so sure and so manifest aa 
authority, there should still remain so many unbe- 
lievers in the world ? Millions of Christians living 
in this age, have seen, heard, and conversed with 
millions of their predecessors in the different parts 
of the world. They cannot be ignorant of the 
faith that every generation of them, from the era-, 
die to the greatest old age, held and professed. They 
bear witness of the doctrine which the great body 
of Pastors taught their respective flocks by common 
consent, which fathers handed down to their chil- 
dren, and which all the faithful, who include always 
3 K 



386 HISTORY OF THE 

about sixty or eighty generations together, -unani-* 
mously believed before them in the last age. The 
preceding age gave the like testimony of the faith 
and practice of the age immediately preceding it 
for the same reason ; so that, though the faithful 
of the present age have not seen Jesus Christ or his 
apostles, yet they are unexceptionable witnesses of 
what was taught and believed in the days of Christ 
and his apostles, because they are unexceptionable 
witnesses of what was taught and believed by the 
generation that immediately preceded them, and 
this generation was in like manner an unexception- 
able witness of the doctrine and practice which it 
learned from the generation before it, and so up- 
wards to the very beginning of Christianity. This 
perpetual mixture of so many ages and so many 
generations, interwoven and twisted together, the 
one with the other, still united in religion, though 
spread all over the known world, and widely differ- 
ing in language, manners, and customs, and almost 
in every thing else but faith, forms but one great 
Body or Church, composed of all true believers, 
who bear one testimony for seventeen hundred years, 
that the faith we now profess, is the self-same that 
was professed by the primitive Christians. This 
plainly shows the Jinger of God, and his all-ruling 
Providence to be visibly here, and must convince 
all unbiassed and unprejudiced persons, that the 
church of Christ could never fall into idolatry or 
superstition, nor altar the faith, nor fail to teach the 
true doctrine of Christ. To prevent the possibility 
hereof, the Apostles, when they first planted the 
faith, took particular care to establish an invariable 
"Rule and settled principle to be observed in every 
succeeding generation, by means of which the self- 
same revealed truths that were believed and taught 
by them in the infancy of the Church, should be 
uniformly conveyed down to posterity without the 
least change, innovation, pr addition, as has been 
already remarked in chap. 6 and 23. By adhering 
strictly to this rule, the Church has inviolably pre- 
served the purity of her faith in every age, to this 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 387 

day ; so that the church in the eighteenth cen- 
tury believes precisely what was believed in the 
seventeenth century, the Church of the seven- 
teenth believed what was believed in the six- 
teenth, the Church of the sixteenth believed what 
was believed in the fifteenth, and so up to the 
days of the Apostles. 

Her doctrine is, has been, or shall be, announced 
in all parts of the earth. She has always main- 
tained her ground amidst the various agitations and 
vicissitudes of human affairs. The very Heathens 
looked upon her as the tree, the trunk, and the stock, 
which the lopped-off and withered branches had 
left still whole and entire. Celsus himself called 
her the great Church. What other communion ever 
inherited the name of Catholic ? What other society 
on earth can trace its origin higher than the time 
of its forming a separate congregation, or the birth of 
the sectary after whom it is called ? What republic 
or community, either sacred or profane, ever had a 
succession of so many great personages, and so few 
bad or vicious men in so great a number of chief 
pastors, as the Church of Christ has had since the 
days of St. Peter ? The world may be challenged 
to show the fifth part of so many successive go- 
vernors, since the creation, of whom there has not 
been a far greater number who have abused the 
power and authority of their office. Out of two 
hundred and fif^y-four Popes who are reckoned 
from St. Peter down- to our time, seventy-seven are 
ranked in the catalogue of the Saints, and there 
have not been above ten or twelve at most against 
whom even their most virulent enemies could find 
occasion to throw out any invectives. Mr. Bower 
himself could not single out any more for the objects 
of his uncharitable attacks, bitter invectives, and 
foul aspersions, which he deals out with such pro- 
fusion, that one would be apt to conclude that he 
took delight in dwelling, like the fly, on sores and 
corruption, and that he raked in all the sinks of 
Heathen and angry party writers, in order to find 
out some slander trumped up by them, that upon their 



288 HISTORY OF THE 

bare assersion he might advance it in his historjf 
as an undeniable truth. Wherever he can discover 
i.ny real or imaginary failings in the actions of somo 
cf the most shining ornaments of venerable anti- 
quity, and those very men who have been the ad- 
miration of past ages for their sanctity and learning, 
these he carefully picks out, and exaggerates in a 
strange manner, whilst he either entirely omits and 
forgets their edifying actions, or poisons their he- 
roic virtues by false motives, as Alban Butler has 
demonstrated, in his Remarks on Bower's Lives of 
the PgJics. The staining of so many sheets of paper 
with his peevish, disgusting narrative, could not 
answer this gentleman's purpose, even though his 
assertions should be granted, because this would only 
show that popes and pastors of, the Church are not 
impeccable, but not that any scandals or vices they 
might have been guilty of, should be charged on 
Religion, or imputed to the doctrine of the Church, 
smce it has never authorised any evil by her deci- 
sions, tenets, or instructions, and it is by them, and 
not by the personal misdemeanours or corruption of 
individuals, that we are to judge the body of the 
Church, and of the sanctity of her Religion. The 
abuses thut have been sometimes made of Religion, 
are indeed a melancholy proof that the wickedness 
of man is capable of abusing the very best things. 
In the very purest ages of Christianity, St. Paul 
complained that a great part of the pastors of his 
own time sought their own interests, and not those 
of Jesus Christ — 2 Philip 12. However, even in 
the worst of times the morality of the Gospel has 
been constantly practised by millions of the faithful, 
and every age has produced shining examples of vir- 
tue, perfect models of sanctity, and a numberless 
multitude of learned prelates, eminent doctors, zea- 
lous pastors, edifying priests, spotless virgins, fer- 
vent religious, and devout recluses. 

Since the commencement of the present century, 
many eminent servants of God have lived and died 
in the odour of sanctity ; a prodigious number of 
ecclesiastical writers has illustrated the doctrine of 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 389 

the Church by their voluminous works ; great con- 
versions have been wrought in different parts of 
the world, and divers apostolic missionaries have 
suffered martyrdom in China, in Tonquin, in Co- 
chinchina, in India, &c. but the elucidation of these 
matters is left to the decision of the Church, and 
reserved for the historians of the eusuing age. 

The narrow limits to which this epitome is con- 
fined, allow only a few observations to be made 
'here on the impious writings of a set of Atheists, 
Deists, Materialists, Fatalists, and Freethinkers, 
who have disgraced the present century, by blas- 
phemously attacking the attributes of the Deity, 
the mysteries of Faith, and the miracles of the Old 
and New Testament. These mighty opposers of 
revelation style themselves philosophers, and boast 
of taking reason for their chief guide, whilst they 
appeal to the passions more than to reason, and art- 
fully disguise and gloss over their monstrous errors 
and inconsistent systems with the exterior dress and 
pomp of elegant language. They call the present 
age the enlightened age, and the age of reason, 
though, with respect to them, it might be called 
more justly the age of stubborn incredulity, and of 
a presumptuous and intolerant philosophy, that is 
destructive at once both of religion and morality. 
Having filled their heads with chimeras, with re- 
veries, and false ideas in metaphysics, they raise 
disputes on every thing, and trample down all 
authority, as if they made it a rule not to see as 
others do,. and as if they fancied themselves able, 
by the power of their eloquence and sophistry, to 
overset every truth with impunity. The beauty 
of their style makes the principal merit of their 
literary productions. They dazzle their unguarded 
readers with the brilliancy of their wit ; they charm 
them with a variety of figures and a parade of 
choice expressions and well arranged periods ; they 
enchant them with ingenious sallies and contrasts, 
with diverting descriptions, with nice pleasantries, 
and soft graces; and make them insensibly swallow 
the subtle poison of irreligion and libertinism^ that 
2 K 2 



590 HISTORY OF THE 

is concealed in their writings under the specious 
title and name of philosophy. In short, they are 
fine speakers ; they write with an elegant and na- 
tural turn, and with a force and eloquence that 
scarce leave to a common reader the liberty to 
examine, to discuss, to compare their thoughts, to 
see if they be true, just, and consequential. This 
is the artifice which Voltaire, Rousseau, Gibbon, 
Paine, and several other new philosophers of our 
days, have employed to infatuate and ensnare so 
many giddy, unthinking young people of both 
sexes, who do not pay proper attention to the sense 
and substance of things, but are to be captivated 
at the first reading of an author by the beauty of his 
language, and by an empty jingle of fine words. 
Their taste, in general, is not turned to books that 
require thought and attention in reading. Novels, 
romances, little starts of wit, trifling anecdotes, and 
such authors as express best the passions, paint with 
the roost force, and have the most brilliant colouring 
of imagination, are perused by them with avidity, 
though they are defective in truth and solidity, and 
faulty in point of good sense, reason, and judgment. 
They cannot submit to the reading of the Imitation 
of Jesus Christ, or the like books of piety, which 
lend to improve the morals and cultivate virtue, 
whilst works of an immoral and pernicious tenden- 
cy are unhappily become the favourite and fashion- 
able entertainment of the agCb Heedless of things, 
and running after shadows, they think a book ex- 
cellent if it be well written, though as Horace him- 
self justly remarks, good sense is the basi> and source 
tiftheart of writing well. Thus the tender sensibility 
youth contracts a fond desire for what it should 
abhor, and a love for what it should avoid. At first 
they, perhaps, think only of studying the beauty of 
their language, as if they could not draw pure lan- 
age and eloquence from other sources; but in the 
end they learn by wofui experience the weakness of 
human nature, and the sad consequence of exposing 
themselves to the dangerous occasion of sin. How 
frequently are their understandings perverted, their 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 59 i 

hearts debauched, their passions inflamed, their 
morals depraved, and their innocence sacrificed, 
by the lecture of such impious productions ? Was 
it not by these means that Voltaire instilled the 
poison of his errors and licentious maxims into the 
hearts and minds of a great part of the French 
nation ? Was it not by strewing the paths of false- 
hood and corruption with so many flowers and 
charms, that he made so many apostates, and ruin- 
ed such a number of souls I May not his pen be 
justly compared to the sword of Mahomet? Yet 
never was there a writer more superficial, or who 
had less of the real philosopher. Instead of argu- 
ments and proofs, he has recourse to banters and 
pleasantries. He is satisfied with his jests on ques- 
tions the most important, and seems to glory in 
turning every thing into ridicule, at the expense 
of decency and truth. He attacks the Christian 
Religion with the weapons of falsehood and misre- 
presentation. In his discourses there is neither 
principle, sequel, or connexion. He seldom gives 
any thing from his own fund, and even when he is 
original, we have no reason to admire his learning 
or accuracy. When his writings are analyzed and 
coolly examined, they are found to be nothing but 
surface and colouring, devoid of truth, solidity, or 
principle. Nothing can be discovered in them, or 
in the so much boasted works of the other modern 
philosophers, comparable to the solidity, strength 
of reasoning, and depth of knowledge which we 
observe in the writers of the two foregoing centu- 
ries. What are they all put together, when com- 
pared with a Bossuet? Never has the respectable 
name ci philosophy been more abused than by 
them, in order to give full scope to the most mon- 
strous errors. Voltaire has collected from Tindal, 
Collins, Bolingbroke, and others, whatever could 
be offered to the disadvantage of the holy Scrip- 
tures ; these materials he took care to embellish, by 
flashes and lively sallies of a poignant wit, on which 
account they have been greedily received, whilst 
the answers are neglected and forgotten, perhaps 



392 HISTORY OF THE 

because they are not written in so diverting or en- 
tertaining a style. It is to be wished, however, 
that those who have met with the objections urged 
by him, would also read the answers which have 
been given by the Jews, and by Abbe Guence, pro- 
fessor of rhetoric in the university of Paris, and 
other able advocates for the Scriptures, They 
would be convinced thereby, that whatever ap- 
plause might have been due to the vivacity of 
Voltaire's genius, and the fine turn of his humour, 
had he but made a better use of his talents, he cer- 
tainly merits the severest censure for having in- 
dulged his wit in treating the word of God in a 
ludicrous and contemptuous manner. It is true 
indeed, the praise or the resentment of mankind is 
now of small moment to him, but his works remain, 
and it is equitable that they should receive due cor- 
rection. As for Rousseau, he has hardly much 
more than the appearance of a philosopher. Had 
he confined himself to subjects of literature and 
amusement, he would have met with the most glo- 
rious success, but the ambition of dogmatizing hav- 
ing unhappily seized him, he has succeeded only in 
betraying an extravagant pride and a rancorous 
spirit. With his extraordinary talents he has only 
formed an absurd hypothesis, an unconnected plan, 
a building wherein every part stands in need of a 
prop, a chaos, rather than a system. He is every 
where in contradiction with himself, not only in the 
same book, but often in the same page. His ideas 
are extravagant, his reasonings false and captious, 
his views chimerical and full of paradoxes. The 
reading of his works, so far from staggering the 
belief of revelation in a sound understanding and 
well-informed mind, ought rather to contribute to 
the strengthening of it. If, therefore, they some- 
times puzzle the reader with their subtleties and 
wretched sophisms, — the glaring inconsistency of 
their arguments, and their t;elf-contradictions, are 
an evident proof that revelation cannot be attacked 
by just reasoning, and, consequently, that it is true, 
as M. Bergier has demonstrated, in his Deism Self- 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 393 

refuted, 2 vols, London printed, 1775. With respect 
to Mr. Gibbon, he imposes on his readers by the ele- 
gance of his composition, and by his parade of vague 
and unwarrantable quotations. As if he imagined 
wisdom was born with him, he censures the primitive 
Fathers with peculiar severity, and perpetually vili- 
fies the most sacred truths with contemptuous irony. 
Instead of quoting facts and passages faithfully, he 
has recourse to shameful falsifications, and supports 
his cause by manifest calumnies, in order to father 
the absurdest opinions on the most venerable writers 
of antiquity. He retails objections, as new, which 
had been started often against the Divine Original 
of Christianity, and as often refuted and exploded, 
long before he was born. The indefensible arti- 
fices to which he recurs have been unmasked, and 
his arguments have been ably refuted, by several 
learned men of this age, who have zealously stept 
forth to support the cause of the Christian Religion 
with solid truths and sound reasoning. Watson, 
Whitaker, Davis, Chelsum, Randolph, with other 
members of the universities of Oxford and Cam- 
bridge, have confuted his principles, pointed out his 
inaccuracies, and shown that his writings teem with 
misrepresentations and base calumnies. They have 
■proved" -that this whole plan of accounting for the 
rapid grogress of the Christian Religion among the 
Gentile nations, is a stale infidel topic, and that, as 
Mosheim says in his Ecclesiastical history, " it is 
« necessary to have recourse to an omnipotent and 
" invisible hand, as the true and proper cause of 
« that amazing rapidity, with which Christianity 
" spread itself upon the earth by poor feeble in- 
M struments. Those who pretend to assign other 
u causes of this surprising event, indulge themselves 
44 in idle fictions, which must disgust every atten- 
u tive observer of men and things/ 5 

This century will be ever remarkable in the an- 
nals of history for the French Revolution, which 
commenced on the 14th cf July 1789, and in a short 
time exhibited to mankind the most bloody tragedy, 
that since the creation was ever acted in any civi* 



394 HISTORY OF THE 

lized Nation. The seeds of this revolution had 
long been sown in France by a set of men, who styl- 
ing themselves philosophers, had formed a faction 
and divided among themselves the task of overturn- 
ing the Throne and the Altars. At first they con- 
cealed their impious designs, and spoke the lan- 
guage of universal benevolence, humanity, and tole- 
ration. They boasted of the lights which they were 
to diffuse through the world, and of the rights of 
man, which they pretended to restore. But the 
atrocity of those pretended philosophers was one 
day to be unmasked, and the Gallican Church and 
State were to be convinced by woful experience, 
that they were actuated by a mortal hatred of Roy- 
alty and of the Priesthood, and determined to stop 
at nothing that might possibly bring about the des- 
truction both of the one and the other. When shall 
I see, said Diderot, the last of Kings strangled with 
the entrails of the last of Priests ? To such lengths, 
alas! are men unhappily driven, when they lose 
sight of religion, and reject or abuse the lights that 
God gives them. By a just and terrible judgment, 
they are abandoned to the errors of their minds and 
to the depravity of their hearts, and suffered to 
plunge into a worse darkness than that of ancient 
idolatry. They are left to themselves and to their 
lawless passions. They break through all bonds, 
lay aside all shame, make a sacrilegious use of their 
reason, blind themselves more and more, until, be- 
ing dead to grace, they fall into the most dissolute 
debauchery and the most complete irreligion. The 
leading Heroes of this revolutionary philosophy, 
and all the sects and impious wits of the day, ac- 
knowledged Voltaire to be their father, and solicit- 
ed for him their honour, pomp, and triumph of an 
apotheosis of an ancient Rome. The National as- 
sembly enacted that the majestic Church of St. Ge- 
nevieva, the most august fabric In the capital of 
France, lately finished at the immense expense of 
more than eighty millions of livres, and forty years 
labour, should be converted into a pantheon, and 
serve as a mausoleum for the reception of the re* 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 39i> 

fiiains of Voltaire and of other declared enemies of 
Jesus Christ and his Religion. An insidious Con- 
stitution was afterwards framed to sap the very foun- 
dations of Religion, and to subject the Gospel to the 
capricious will of men, who professing no religion 
themselves, were enemies to every religion. Their 
hatred of all religion impelled them to enforce an 
oath on the Clergy, which their fidelity to the laws 
of their conscience would not allow them to take. 
Unmerited calumnies were therefore artfully spread, 
in order to prejudice the minds of the people against 
them. They were persecuted with open violence, 
the altars were stained with the blood of many in- 
nocent victims, that refused to join the faction ; 
several were paraded about the public streets in the 
most humiliating garbs, with labels the most insult- 
ing and injurious, and with their mouths crammed 
with hay. Several were plunged into rivers with 
pitchforks fixed to their necks, and held under the 
water till they expired. Several were beheaded, 
and their heads carried on pikes amidst imprecations 
and songs. Several were knocked down in the 
Churches and kicked and buffetted by merciless ruf- 
fians, hired for that purpose. It would be an end- 
less task to enumerate all the horrid sacrileges, as- 
sassinations, and savage cruelties, that were per- 
petrated in different parts of the kingdom by the 
lawless populace, who were encouraged thereto by 
men in power. Near six hundred persons were 
butchered in the streets of Nimes under the pretext 
of exterminating aristocracy. Mr. Nolhac, the ve- 
nerable Pastor of St. Symphorien, in the eightieth 
year of his age, and six hundred of his flock, were 
massacred at Avignon, with bars of massive iron, 
and torn and disfigured with sabres. The cities of 
Lyons, Bourdeaux, Rouen, Sec. exhibited also* most 
dreadful scenes of ferocious cruelty, bloodshed, and 
barbarity. The sacred asylums of piety, and monas- 
teries of the Religious of both sexes were thrown 
open, pillaged, and profaned. Sanctuaries were 
pulled down, the sacred vessels were abused, the 
Images were defaced, the paintings were disfigured* 



396 HISTORY OF THE 

the bells were melted, the tombs of the dead were 
violated, and bullets were made of their leaden cof- 
fins, for the use of the soldiery. In short, the support- 
ers of the Throne were either guillotined, impri- 
soned, or obliged to emigrate, and the defenders of 
Religion were either murdered, exiled, or reserved 
us victims to be immolated at a future period. 

Of one hundred and thirty-eight French Bishops 
or Archbishops, only four prevaricated. The 
number of priests, both secular and regular, who 
persevered in a steady refusal of perjury and apos- 
tacy, amounted to at least seventy thousand. Those 
who had not consulted the safety of their lives in 
time, by travelling over mountains and crossing the 
seas in quest of some hospitable spot, were cast into 
prisons, and compelled to abandon their flocks to 
mercenaries and ravenous wolves, who were thrust 
mto the pastoral ministry by a set of laymen, who 
had no mission or spiritual jurisdiction themselves, 
and consequently could impart none. Thus a 
phantom was substituted in France for the Church, 
schism for unity, intruders for lawful pastors, illu- 
sion and error for reality and truth, anarchy and 
confusion for order and discipline, liberty and equa- 
lity for regularity and subordination. Nothing can 
equal the barbarity, with which numbers of the 
nonjuring ecclesiastics were sacrificed at Paris, 
the very metropolis of the revolution, and under 
the eyes of the new Legislators. Jn the first week 
of September, 1792, one hundred and sixty Priests 
were massacred in the prison of La Force, eighty- 
six at the Conciergerie, and ninety-two at the semi- 
nary of St Firming according to the printed lists, 
then published. About one hundred and eighty- 
Priests were massacred at the Abbeye and at the 
Chafiel of the Carmelites, in the space of two or three 
hours. It was here the illustrious Archbishop of 
Aries and his brother the bishop of Saintes, were 
most inhumanly murdered, whilst, in imitation of 
the primitive Christians in the Catacombs, they 
were on their knees united in prayer and offering to 
God the sacrifice of their lives, in company with 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 597 

several other ecclesiastics of distinguished merit, 
who, at the same time, likewise sealed with their 
blood the faith they had so gloriously defended. The 
murders continued at the Conciergerie with very- 
little interruption for twenty-six hours; but they 
lasted at La Force from the second of September at 
night till late on the fifth. It was the common 
opinion at Paris that the number of the slain, in- 
cluding both Clergy and Laity, was not less than. 
twelve thousand. Five months had not elapsed 
from this tragical scene, when his most Christian 
Majesty, Lewis XVI, appeared on the scaffold the 
21 st of January, 1793, and his head fell by a de- 
cree of a Convention^ that styled itself National. 
Maria Antoinette of Austria and Lorrain, his Roy* 
al consort, and Madame Elizabeth, his sister, were- 
likewise guillotined, by a decree of the same self- 
created Tribunal. For further particulars, the rea- 
der is referred to the writings of Maury, Barruel, 
and other well-informed writers, who have faith- 
fully collected the memorable events and transac- 
tions of the present age from the most authentic 
documents, in order to transmit a genuine history of 
them to posterity. 

Let us therefore stop here in silent admiration, 
adoring the unsearchable ways and counsels of Di- 
vine Providence, which for its own wise reasons 
has permitted a proud intolerant philosophy to 
mount the throne of the once flourishing, but now 
miserably convulsed, Kingdom of France, to tram- 
ple upon so large a portion of the Christian Church, 
and to curry the calamities of war, fire, and deso- 
lation into several of the surrounding Nations of 
Europe. It is to be hoped, that the blessings of 
peace will be shortly restored, and that God in his 
great mercy will be pleased to avert from us in his 
own good time those dreadful scourges and disasters 
which his provcked justice has suffered this part 
of the world to be visited with in our days, in order 
to punish the crying sins of the wicked, and to exer- 
cise the virtues of the just At all events, the 
Cnurcho; Christ being the work of God himself, 



393 HISTORY OF TH« 

will always stand firm, and weather out every storm 
raised against her by the powers of hell, whilst 
the works of men, though supported for a time 
with ever so much obstinacy and enthusiasm, must 
perish and moulder away in the end. The perpe- 
tual and uninterrupted continuance of the Church 
for so many past ages, notwithstanding the various 
revolutions that have happened in the world since 
her first establishment, is a certain sign of what is 
to happen hereafter. Nay, it is nothing less than 
a standing Miracle, that proves the truth of her 
religion, and shows her to be always under the pro- 
tection of Heaven, and the unerring guidance of 
the Holy Ghost. It appears plainly from the con- 
tents of the foregoing Synopsis, that she is the be- 
loved Spouse of Jesus Christ, and the first and most 
ancient communion of Christians in the world. It 
cannot be denied that she was the true Church of 
Christ when St. Paul wrote his epistle to the Romans, 
and declared that their faith was spoken of through 
the whole world, Rom. 1. 8. and of course she is still 
the true Church, since her faith can never fail or 
vary, for the sacred words of God once fiut into her 
mouth, shall never depart from her mouth, as God in 
his Covenant with her expressly promised. — Isai. 1. 
59. In her are to be found the four distinguishing 
characters or marks of the true Church, assigned by 
the Nicene Creed, when it says, / believe One y 
Holy, Catholic, and Jpostolic Church ; for she is One 
in her faith, Holy in her morals, Catholic or Uni- 
versal in her extent, and Perpetual in her duration. 
She is also Apostolic, because she descends by a 
lineal succession of seventeen hundred years from 
the twelve Apostles, and derives her doctrine, her 
priesthood r and her mission from them. Although the 
members of her communion are spread over all re- 
gions, yet they are united in one and the same faith, 
and in the participation of the same Sacraments. — 
They all believe the same divine truths, hold the 
same principles, teach the same doctrine, preach the 
same Gospel, profess the same Religion, offer the 
same sacrifice, receive the same Sacraments, and con- 



CnURCH OF CHRIST. 399 

<j;ur in one and the same worship. She justly glories 
in having had always in her communion a great num- 
ber of Saints, whose eminent virtues have been fre- 
quently attested by real miracles. Her doctrine, if 
attended to, conduces to all virtue, sanctity, and per- 
fection. Far from holding out any encouragement 
to sin, or adopting any impious principle whatever, 
she challenges her greatest adversaries to show the 
smallest stain in any part of what she really teaches 
as an article of her belief. She detests and con- 
demns all traitorous plots, conspiracies, rebellions, 
massacres, and every kind of perjury, even upon 
the score of religion. Tribunals of inquisition con- 
stitute no part of her Creed. They are human laws 
of polity or state-government, received in some Ca- 
tholic countries and rejected in others ; though with- 
out acting the part of an advocate for them, truth 
and justice must oblige every impartial and unpre- 
judiced person to acknowledge, that they are grossly 
misrepresented by several writers. If men govern- 
ed by the spirit of the world have sometimes made 
use of the name of religion as a pretext or blind to 
cover their passions and criminal projects, in actions 
wherein it had no share, Religion should not be 
charged with their misdemeanours, nor is it account- 
able for the abuse of its name, since the wickedness 
of man will abuse even the very best things. It is 
not, therefore, the fault of Religion, if many oL its 
professors do not practise what it teaches and incul- 
cates. Nor does the Church cease to be holy, be- 
cause there is a mixture of good and bad in it, for a 
Church upon earth without any sinners in its com- 
munion would not answer the description given by 
the Gospel of the Church of Christ, which is com- 
pared to a floor ) in which there is chaff mingled with 
wheats Matth. 3, to a net in which there are bad fish 
as well as goody Matth. 13, and to a field wherein 
tares are suffered to grow up with the good grain , 
Matth. 13, till the harvest time, or the end of the 
world, when the separation is to take place. In the 
interim, says St. Augustine, the wicked, signified by 



400 HISTORY OF THE 

the tares, are permitted to live among the just, either 
that they may be converted, or that the just may be 
tried and exercised by them. The Church incessant- 
ly bewails their misfortune, and zealously endea- 
vours to reclaim them from their evil ways, and con- 
duct them by the most efficacious helps and means 
into the narrow way that leads to a happy eternity. 

In fine, the Church justly inherits the titles of 
Catholic and Apostolic. She is the Church of all 
ages and nations. She is not confined to one corner 
of the earth, or to one single nation, like the Jewish 
Synagogue, but diffused over all countries, from 
the rising of the sun to the going down thereof. — 
It was from her that the different empires and king* 
koms of the earth first received their Christianity, 
and her faith is, or has been, and shall be announced 
in all places of the universe before the day of ge- 
neral judgment. The contents of this compendious 
narrative plainly show, that she has lineally de- 
scended to this very day from the first society of 
Christians, founded by the Apostles, and that she 
kas preserved the sacred doctrine delivered by them 
at the beginning, without the smallest alteration or 
innovation of her faith in any one article of re- 
vealed truths. 

Happy they who live up to the dictates of her 
religion, and honour it by the purity of their mo- 
rals, and by a continual observance of its precepts, 
a mere speculative or abstractive faith not being 
sufficient, but a belief, that worketh by charity, 
being required. Those who are reared in the 
bosom of the Church, instructed in her doctrine, 
educated in her principles, and sanctified by her 
sacraments, which are so many conduits of divine 
grace, ever open and ever flowing for the sanctifi- 
cation of souls, which demean themselves in a 
manner becoming worthy members of so illustrious 
n body, of which Christ is the head. They should 
always acknowledge God's infinite mercy w r iih sen- 
timents of gratitude, and return him the warmest 
thanks for the signal benefit and grace of their vo- 



CHURCH OF CHRIST. 401 

cation. Far from giving any scandal or offence* 
they should edify their neighbour by the practice 
of the Christian Virtues of humility, meekness, 
justice, charity. This obligation is grounded on 
the sanctity of the religion they profess, on the 
dignity of the character they bear, and on the sa- 
cred vows which they have made at the Baptismal 
Font. 



FINIS. 



2 L 2 



AN 

ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 

&f particular Personages and Matters treated 
of in this Synopsis. 



THE NUMBERS DENOTE THE PAGES. 



239. 



-A BELAUD, p. SOT. 

Academies 235, 277, 281, 274, 

324, 329, 337. 
Acephali 223. 
Adrian 72. 
St Agapetus 223. 
Alaric 203, 204. i 
Albigenses 303, 315. 
Alcoran 251. 
Alcuin 264, 265, 277. 
Alexander III. 203. 
Alexander Severas 121. 
Almsdeeds H5, 310, 518. 
St. Ambrose 179. 
St. Amphilochius 168. 
St. Anselm 291. 
St. Anthony of Egypt 188. 
St. Anthony of Padua 32j. 
Antipodes 266. 
Apostles 21, 28, SO, ^ 9 50, 57, 

58, 59. 
Anus 144,147, 148. 
Arians i47, 148, 149, 150, 196. 
Ajncbins 120. 
Arnold of Brescia 3C7. 
St. Athanasius 147, 151. 
Attila 206. 

St. Augustine 180, 209, 210. 
Aurelius Prudcntius 175. 
St. Austin, of England 229. 
St. Babylas 194. 
Bajazet 254. 
Baldwin 298. 
Bangor Abbey 233, S03. 
Barbarossa 296, 303. 
St. Basil 162. 
Uede, Venerable 265. 
Belisarius 223, 224, 225. 
Berengarius 285. 



St. Bernard 305, 306, 307/308. 

Boetnus 222. 

St. Bonaventure 321. 

St. Boniface 265. 

Bower 338. 

Burials 101. 

Calendar reformed 345. 

Calvin 364. 

St. Camillus S77. 

Canonization 284. 

Carthusians 289. 

Catechumens 169. 

Cecilian 145. 

Cecilius 108. 

Celibacy 41, 151, 164, 170, 

227. 
Celsus 119. 

Cemetery of Calixtus 101. 
Cerularius 273, 286. 
Charlemagne 273, 277, 278. 
Christ Church 310. 
Christ. Rome SS t 242, 243. 
Chiistor. Columbus 373. 
Church of St. Peter 351. 
Church of St. Paul 358.' 
Church of St. John Later an 

145, 357. 
Church of Holv Cross 358. 
Church of St. Mary Major 358. 
Church of St. Sophia 142. 
Church of St. Sebastian 358. 
Church of St. Laurence 358. 
Church of St. Ignatius S59. 
Church Music 226, 292. 
Church Ornaments 3G0. 
Circumcellians 184. 
Cistercians 289. 
Colisee at Rome 357. 
St. Columban 254. 



ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 



40S 



St. Columkillc 2S& 
Columna Anton. 96. 
Confession 113, 114, 115, 161, 

162, 1T9, 247, 865. 
Confidence in God 306. 
Constantine the Great 129, 136, 

141, 146, 148. 
Constantine Cepron. 259, 260. 
Constantinople 143, 252, 298, 

341. 
Constantius 149, 150, 151. 
Convulsionarists l68. 
St. Cornelius 103. 
Council of Jerusalem 52. 
1st G. Council 129,146. 
2d G. Council 199. 
3d G. Council 218. 
4th G. Council 221. 
5th G. Council 229. 
6th G. Council 247. 
7th G. Council 262. 
8th G. Council 273. 
9th G. Council 302. 
10th G. Council 302. 
11th G. Council 302. 
12th G. Council 313. 
13th G. Council 313. 
14th G. Council 313. 
15th G. Council 325. 
16th G. Council 331. 
17th G. Council 339. 
18th G. Couneil 345. 
19th G. council at Trent 345. 
Council of Rimini 149* 
Council of Sardica 148. 
Council Latrocinale 220. 
Council Quiniscent 247. 
Council Basil 338. 
Cross 82, 92, 121, 136, 1S7, 

141, 169,473, 215, 252, 267. 
Crummius 261. 
Crusades 293. 
Cultivation of Letters 277. 

281, 282, 324, 323, 329; 

337. 
St. Cyprian 109. 
St. Cyril of Alexandria 216. 
St. Cyril of Jerusalem 169. 
St. Damasus 140. 
Decline of the Roman Empire 

207, 236. 



Didymus of Alexandria 177. 

Dioclesian 126, 1S4. 

St. Dionysius of Alexandria 17. 

Dionysius Exiguus 231. 

Dioscorus 220*. 

Donatists 139, 145, 146, 184, 

210. 
Duelling 228. 
Dying persons 379. 
England converted 229. 
St. Ephrem 159. 
St. Epiphanius 175. 
Erasmus 365. 

Eucharist 40, 73, 82, 83, 85, 
92, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 
117,153,158,159,162,163, 
170, 174, 179, 183, 185, 188, 
205, 209, 212, 218, 219, 269, 
234, 308. 
St. Eustathius 185. 
Eutyches 219. 
Evangelists 29. 

Fasting 91, 117, 153, 173, 175, 
187, 205. 

St. Felix of Valois 311.; 

Fcnelon 383. 

St. Flavian 198, 219. 

France converted 209. 

St. Francis of Sales 375: 

St. Francis Xaverius 375, 

French .persecution 395. 

Frederic I. 303. 

St. Fulgentius 230. 

Gelerius 126, 134, 

Games of hazard 377, 

St. Gaudentius 212. 

St. Gelasius 208, 227. 

General Councils 338. 

Genseric 201, 240, 

St. Germanus 212, 264. 

Gibbon 392. 

Gilbert of Porree 307. 

Godfrey of Bouillon 293, 294 

Gothescale 270. 

Goths 26, 195, 196, 202, 228, 
240. 

St. Gregorv the Great 225. 

Gregory VII. 287. 

St. Gregory Nazianzen 164. 

St. Gregory of Nyssa 161. 

St. Gregory Thaumaturgus 116, 



404 



ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 



Greek schism 272, 342. 
Greek empire overthrown 254, 

293, 343. 
Guelphs and Ghibellins 313. 
St. Helena 142. 
Henry IV. 287, 288. 
Heraclius 247, 250. 
Heresies 3, 83, 87, 90, 144, 97, 

214, 215, 245, 267. 
Hierarchy of the Church 34, 

181, 335 9 
St. Hilary 151. 
B. Holberg288, 335. 
Holy Well 249. 
Honorius 245. 
Hunneric 196. 
Hussites 333. 
St. Hyacinth 322. 
Hypatia 217. 
St. James of Nisibis 161. 
Jansenius 381. 
Iconoclaus 259. 
St. Jerom 168, 177. 
Jews 63, 64, 65, 66. 
St Ignatius 71, 272. 
Incorrupt icolie 231. 
Indefectibility of the Church 16, 

18, 173, 255. 
Indulgences 111, 201. 
Infallibility of the Church 173, 

257, 25*8, 280, 332. 
Intercession of Saints 116, 153, 

158, 162,168, 182,216. 
Joan, Pope, a forgery 268. 
John I. 222. 
John of A vila 392. 
St. John Chrysostom 171. 
St. John Damascene 264. 
St. John of Matha311. 
Ireland converted 232, 303, 
Irene 261. 
St. Irenreus 83. 
St. Isidore 211. 249. 
Julian Apostate 90. 
St. Justin M. 80. 
Justinian 224, 225. 
St. Kevin 235. 
Knights Hospitalers 301. 
Knights Templars 296, 301, 
Lactantius 120. 
Laafrimc 286, 



Lanfrid 270, 281. 

Latitudinarians 369. 

St. Laurence Justinian 334. 

Laurence Scupoli 375. 

St. Laurence Toole 303, 309, 

310. 
Lawful Mission 35, 90. 
St. Leo the Great 205. 
St Leo IV. 267. 
St. Leo IX. 286. 
Leo the Isaurian 259. 
St. Lewis IX. 299. 
Libellatici 111. 
Liberius 140, 150. 
Licinius 136. 
Litanies 226. 

Lombards 228, 274, 275, 276. 
Lucilla 138. 
Lucius 78, 229. 
Luther 362, 363. 
Macedonius 199. 
Mahomet II. 340. 
Mahometanism 250, 251, 252, 

298. 
St. Malachy 233, 308, 309. 
Manicheans 181, 301, 315. 
Marcionites 76. 
Marcus Aurelius, 94, 96. 
Mariner's compass 299. 
Mark of Ephesus 340. 
Marks of the Church 398. 
Maronites 343. 
St Martin 153, 247. 
Martyrs 58, 68, 98, 123, 131, 

132 192. 
Mass 113, 116, 171, 172, 183, 

188, 208, 228, 226, 227, 248, 

249, 265, 321. 
Maxentius 135. 
Maximian 118. 
Maximinus 121, ISO, 137. 
St. Maximus211,247. 
St- Meleties 198. 
Meletians 144, 148. 
Messalians 168. 
Millenarians 57. 
Minucius Felix 106. 
Miracles 20, 24, SO, 31, 38, 

153, 155, 158,170, 216, 270, 

308, 326, 
Monks 128, 161,186,187,189, 
234. 



ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 



AQ5 



Monothelitcs 245. 

Montanists 76, 77. 

Mortification 290, 306, 320. 

Nailor ^83. 

Nero 5G, 67, 237, 238. 

Nestorius 216. 

New Gospellers 371. 

Nicephorus 261. • 

St Nicephorus 271. 

St Nicholas of Tolentin 328. 

Nicholas V. 340. 

St. Norbert 308. 

Normans 236, 283. 

Novatian 103. 

Odoacer 208, 240. 

St. Optatus 183. 

Ordeal trials 265. 

Origen 118. 

St. Pacian 158. 

Pagan Philosophers 49, 51, 53 9 

70. 
Pagan Rome 203, 208, 223, 

230, 236, 238, 239, 240. 
Painting 113. 
Palestine 254, 294. 
Pantheon 238, 243. 
Passage to East Indies 337. 
Paschasius Radbert 270. 
Patriarehs 334. 
St. Patrick 204, 310. 
Patrimony of St. Peter 275. 
St. Paul Apostle 24, 61. 
St. Paul H. 186. 
St. Paulinus of Nola 154. 
Pelagius 210. 
Penitent canons 114. 117, 138, 

201. 
Pepin 266, 274, 275. 
Persecutors 133, 195. 
St. Peter Apostle 15, 19, 23, 

31, 32, S3, 57, 58, 61, 162. 
St. Peter Chrysol 211. 
Peter Leo 303. 
Peter Lombard 312. 
St. Peter Nolaseo 316. 
St. Peter Verona 323. 
St. Philip feeniti 318. 
Photius 272. 
St. Porphyrias 175. 
Prag. Sanction 339, 345. 
Prayers for the dead 92, 116, 



159,171,172,130,182,258. 
Pride 69, 78, 92, 157, 
Primitive Christians 39, 40, 41, 

74, 75, ^5, 89, 97, 101, 126, 
Printing Types 337. 
Priscillianistsl54. 
St. Proclus 215. 
St. Prosper 210. 
Prosperity 122, 149, 143, 341, 
Protection of the Church 59, 

132, 133,141,147,236,255, 

236, 279, 280. 
Quartodecimans 80. 
Rabanus Maurus 270. 
St. Raymond Nonnatus 318. 
St. Raymond of Pen. 217. 
Reason 42, 43, 48, 365, 366, 

367. 
Relicks 94, 145. 
Religion 36 t 38, 44, 46. 
Religious Orders 317, 347. 
St. Remigius 209. 
Resurrection 87. 
Revelation 43. 
Rogations 213. 
Rousseau 3927 
Rule of Faith 16, 25, 29. 
Sacred Images 259, 260. 
Sacrifice 85, 88. 
Saddueees 20. 

Sanctity of the Church 399.* 
Saints in the worst of times 291, 

325, 376. 
Sapor II, 197. 
Saracens 250. 
Saul converted 24. 
Scandals 53. 

Schism in the West 268, 326. 
Sacred Scripture 28, 29. 
Self-denial 290. 
Self-love 306. 
Seneca 47. » 

Septimius Severus 97. 
ft Silverius 223, 224. 
Simon Magus 55, 56, 57. 
Socinianism 366. 
St. Saphronius 248. 
St. Stephen first M. 18. 
St. Stephen Ab. 260. 
St. Stephen P. 104. 
Sufferisgs and afflictions i%&* 



406 



ALPHABETICAL TABLE. 



Suicide 48. 

St. Sulpicius 150. 

Tamerlane 254. 

St. Tarasius 262. 

Tertullian 38. 

Theatre 91. 

Theban Legion ISO. 

Theodoret 216. 

Theodoric 222. 

Theodorus the Studite 2T1. 

Theodosius the Great 198, &c. 

Theophilus 86. 

St. Thomas of Aquin 219. 

Thomas of Jesus 348. 

Thomas of Kempis Sob. 

Thundering Legion 95. 

Totila 241. 

Tradition 51. 

Trajan 71. 



Turks 253. 

St. Udalric 284. 

Valens 196. 

Valerian 134. 

Vandals 207. 

Venice founded 206. 

Vespasian 70. 

Victor 79. 

Vigilius 224. 

St. Vincent of Lerins 21S. 

Virginity 41, 

Visible Head of the Church 15. 

Voltaire 289. 

Waldenses 316. 

St. Wenefride 249. 

White Mass 125% 

Zachary 2€6. 

Zisca SSS. 



SUBSCRIBERS' NAMES. 



NEW-YORK. 



Rev. A. Kohlmann,SO 



B. Fenwick, 
P. Kohlmann, 
A, Ladaviere, 
Alcala, Domingo 

B. 
Boyle, Patrick 
Brenan, John 
Boyle, Richard 
Brady, John 
Byrne, Garret 
Barber, F. C. 

C 
Casey, Patrick 
Coshlein, Wra. 
Castro, Peter Paul 
Coppinger, Joseph 
Crosby, Dorothy 
Connolly, James 
Conlin, George 
Clermont, L. L. 

D. 
Duff, A. D. 
Doyle, Dennis 
Daley, George 
Devlin, Arthur 
Donnelly, Patrick 
Dennies, C F. 
Dugoure, Victor 
Dykers, Jaques 

E. 
Eldridge, Christian 

F. 
Flinn, Mrs. Ellen 
Flynn, Michael 
Farrel, Edward 

G. 
Goodman, Cath. 



Gilmor, — 
20 Goodwin, A. W. 
12 Gobert, Joseph 
15 Guire, Terence 
H. 
Hefferman, John I 
H. Doyle, Dennis 
H. Michael Bowyer 
Harms, John 
Higgins, Francis 
Hardy, Rose 
Hillon, Arthur 
Higgins, Wm. 

I 
Idly, Joseph 
Idly, Mrs. Maria 
Idly, Miss Eliza 

J 
Johnson, John 
Joubert, Charles E. 

K 
Killy, Peter 
Keenan, Patrick 
Keegan, M. 

L 
Lynch, Dominic 

Linny, 

Llovd, Harriet B. 

M 
Marshall, Joseph 
Martin, Helene 
Morris, Andrew 6 
McCarthy 5 

McDonnell A. 
McCarthy B. 
M'Ginnis 
Megan, Patrick 
M'Conolly, Neal 

GEORGETOWN. 



M 

Macklin, Maria 
M'Shea, Wm. 
M'Fadden, Edward 
Madden, Jane 
M'Gahey, John 
Mooney, Thomas 
M orange, Peter 
M'Elwei, John 

N- 
Neale, James C. 

O 
O'Brien, Wm. 
O'Reilley, Edward 
O'Donnell, Andrew 
Olliff, John 
O'Connor, Edward 

P 
Picard F. 

Q 

Quin, John 

R 
Rilev, H. A. 

S 
Stoughton, Thomas 6 
Shakaran, George 
Sinnot, Richard 
S moll an, James 
Spreed, Wm. 
^chueller, J. A. 
Skiddy, J. A. 

V 
D. Vechio, Charles 
Vaiad, Gales 

W 
Walsh, John 
White, John 
Wallace, James 



A 

Adam King 
Athanatius Ford 
Alexander Moore 



B . C 

Bennet Clements, jr. [Charles King 4 

Benj. Mahorney ;C. H. W. Wharton, 
B. Cooper fCleraeat Newton 



40 8 



SUBSCRIBERS' NAMES. 



Clement Sewall 
Charles Waring 

D 
Daniel Barr 
Doctor Wells 
Daniel Deveney 

E 
Edward Ford 
Edward Digges 
Edward Miles 
Edward Clarke 
Enoch King 

F 
Francis Fenwick 

G 
George Mahorney 
George Kellenberger 
George King 
Eev. Mr. Grassi, Pre 
sident of George 
Town College, 36 

H 
Henry Larvis 
Henry Carbury 
He ekiah Langley 

1 
John Lee 
Joseph King 
Join Laurence 
John Dix 



Jacob H. Geiger 

Jonas Thomson 

John S. Mahorney 

John Graves 

John Heart 

John Sherlock 

John Simpson 

Josias M. Speake 

James P. Gammon 

Joseph -^ ills 

John Conoily 

Ignatius Newton 

John Green 

Johanna Cobat 

Ignatius Livers 

Ignatius Peerce 

Joseph Brooks 

James Gammon 

James King 

John G Ford 

Joseph D West 
L 

Rt. Rev. Leonard 
Neale, Bishop of 
Gortyna, A 

Lewis Poole 

Lewis ^ewall 

Lucy McPhcrson 
M 

Mary ; Neill 



Marsham Waring 
Mary Cooper 
Mary Graham 
Mrs. Mason 
Michael Bradey 

N 
Nicholas Wheelan 

P 
Philip Power 

R 
Rich. Gipson 
Robert Clark 
Raphael Boarman 
Robert Reason 
Richard Jones 

S 
Samuel Clements 

T 

Tench Ringgild 
Thomas Ward 
Thomas Slye 

W 
William Clarke 
Walter Newton 
Walter Steward 
Wm. H ettings 
Walter Mudd 

Z 
Zachariah Goddartl 



ALEXANDRIA. 



Alexander Bagget 
Andrew Dromax 
Alexander Dunbar 

B 
Barthol. Rotchford 
Bryan H. Mullan 

E 
Edward M'Laughlin 

J 
Joseph 6. Hill 
Jeremiah A- Neale 
James King 



Joseph M'Lean 
J. B. Barnhouse 
John Baggot 
James Sheeky 

L 
Laughlin Masterson 

M 
Matthew Robinson 
Miss Marg. Keating 
Mrs. White 
Matthew Mann 

Michael 

Mrs. J. Patton 



O 



Owen Sullivan 

R 
Richard T. Semmes 
Richard L. Hewitt 

S 
Samuel Bagget, sen. 

T 
Thomas White 

W 
William Mansfield 
William Kenuedy 



Hri51 82 II 















1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 










w . 










!>«* 



^ d\ * • * <s 







^ i* 

W 








■ *"• '.i 











V* :W- \/ .•&&'. W /J 



,A 



JSfc MAY 82 

|Sf 5) I- MANCHESTER, 
INDIANA 46962 




